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Research and Editorial Assistants Jesse J. Gant, Joel Heiman, Mike Nemer, John Nondorf, dVfTTU^ B^ffl 2 The "Snow Shoe Priest"on JohnZimm ^^ 1HH I [J |. 1HKH B Madeline Island Designer Archaeology at Frederick Baraga's Zucker Design _S2^j>r^,,r 1 > jBffli Indian Mission THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), t ^^ft published quarterly, is a benefit of full membership in the by Robert A. Birmingham Wisconsin Historical Society. '"^jmM Kfe *'* Full membership levels start at $45 for individuals and $65 for 14 The MacArthurs and institutions. To join or for more information, visit our Web site at The Mitchells wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership \ \ 11 .. Office at 888-748-7479 or e-mail whsmemberiawisconsinhistory.org. Wisconsin's First Military Families by Jeffrey J. McLean 4^ The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright ©2010 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 28 Helene Stratman-Thomas ISSN 0043-6534 (print) Wisconsin Songcatcher ISSN 1943-7366 (online) by Eriliajanili For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of His tory, (ISSN 0043-6534), please access www.copyright.com or con tact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, 38 "Nothing more than a tradition' Danvers, MA, 01923,978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organiza John Nelligan in the Wisconsin tion that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. Pinery For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine by John Zimm of History, identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison,WI, 53706.
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VOLUME 94, NUMBER 2 / WINTER 2010
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THE "SNOW SHOE PRIEST" Om MADELINE ISLAND
''PN< ARCH. iLOGYAT rFREDERICK BARAGA:^^,I^TAN MISSION m^/M.^/,
BY ROBERT A. BIRMINGHAM
L^!?7^ N^
ne hundred and seventy-five year^^go, Madeline Island in Lake Superior was a commercial center for the western Great Lakes region, undergoing economic, social, and even religious change. Only a few decades earlier, a British flag had flown over its small settlement, and before that it had been one of the centers of the fur trade in New France, the territory claimed by the French that consisted of southeast Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the Mississippi River Valley. But the European demand for furs had waned, and the island's principal business, the American Fur Company, began 1 1 ^hifting to commercial fishing, shipping out hundreds of barrels of fish as well "'' fJ^s packs of fur.' The island settlement, also known as La Pointe, changed loca- i^^'j-^ii^pi^^ion in 1835. It moved north from Grant's Point, where it had served generations \ Xz^r of canoe-paddling voyageurs and Native American traders, to a deeper and bet- /' W\ ^^ ter£^<^teqted^3iY-.xd(^^l.^x laj.g.ef,J:)oat|S at thp presqjj^c^^y village pf^^ Pointe. liWiRj^rhttaN
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4^ La Pointe, Madeline Island, ca. 1842
The island population consisted of Ojibwe and those of them of most of their lands. Madeline Island was the place mixed Native American and French-Canadian ancestry fre where thousands gathered in the years between 1838 and 1854 quently referred to as metis. ^ The Ojibwe of the Chequamegon to collect annuities—payments made in the form of cash, Bay area, called the La Pointe Band, had long maintained set goods, and food. tlements and camps on the island they call Moningwu- Amidst this flurry of activity, a remarkable holy man—a liv nakauning (Island of the Golden-breasted Woodpecker), which ing saint to some—appeared on the shore of the island in 1835. plays a central role in Ojibwe tradition. Some versions of the He distributed gifts to the Indian people and spoke to them in Ojibwe migration story identify Madeline Island as the end of their own language. A Catholic missionary. Father Frederick a long journey from far to the east, and it is depicted as a megis Baraga had come to attend to the souls of the Ojibwe—the flrst or seashell on some birch bark scrolls used in sacred rituals. priest to be assigned permanendy to the region since the Jesuits Members or priests of the tribal-wide Midewiwin or Grand left in 1665. Medicine Society met here and carried out sacred ceremonies Baraga wasted no time. Within seven days of his arrival, he and rituals well into the nineteenth century. According to one built a simple log church. Within months, he had baptized over Ojibwe tradition, the Midewiwin originated on Madeline one hundred people. He started a school, and over the next Island. several years he built cabins for converts and established a Unfortunately, as time went on the island became a much cemetery next to the church. Baraga's was the second mission less hospitable place for the Ojibwe. The demise of the fur on the island, as Presbyterian missionaries from the Boston- trade left the Ojibwe in a desperate situation, since it was the based American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions primary source for the many manufactured goods they relied had been there since 1830. Baraga boldly placed his mission upon. Traders advanced credit for items of necessity against within eyesight of the Protestants, located one quarter of a mile diminishing fur returns, often leaving the Indians in debt. At to the south, prompting the clergy to complain to Indian agent the same time, the United States government began pressuring Henry Schoolcraft about this "encroachment" on their mis the Ojibwe to sign the treaties that would eventually deprive sionary fields.'
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Bishop Frederick Baraga, Servant of God Irenaeus Frederick Baraga was born to a life of privilege in 1797 in Slovenia, which was then a part of Austrian Hapsburg Empire.^ He attended law school in Vienna, but gave up his money and station to become a priest. Answering a call for mis sionaries in America, he traveled to Cincinnati in 1831 and then spent several years at Indian missions in Michigan. He rapidly learned native languages, publishing a prayer book in the Ottawa language and later developing the first grammar and dictionary for Ojibwe).' The Leopoldine Society (Leopoldinenstiftung), a Vienna organization formed in 1829 to aid American Catholic mis sions, supported his work in North American, as did wealthy relatives. The Society was named in honor of Austrian Maria Leopoldina, Empress of Brazil and daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Leopold or Leopoldus (1073-1136) is also the name of the patron saint of Austria and Vienna. ** A year after founding the mission, Baraga traveled back to Europe to raise money. Reports of his missionary work earned St. Joseph Catholic Church, La Pointe, built by Baraga in 1843. him an audience with the pope and receptions with Austrian royalty. Money and supplies in hand, he returned to the island in 1837 and expanded the mission for a rapidly growing con climate of the north did not lend themselves to an economy gregation. Baraga moved a short distance to the new village of based exclusively on agriculture, as subsequent European and La Pointe in 1841, where he built a parish church he named for American immigrants would discover, and Baraga eventually St. Joseph. Using La Pointe as a base, he traveled throughout had to give up on this idea. In 1843, Baraga moved to the mis the Lake Superior country launching other missions. He sion at L'anse, Michigan, and Father Otto SkoUa continued at 4^ earned the nickname "the snowshoe priest" because of his fre La Pointe in his stead. The mission closed after the treaty of quent and arduous winter travel. 1854, when the La Pointe Ojibwe were assigned two reserva tions on the mainland. The parish church remained on Made Baraga's Madeline Island Mission line Island, but clergy moved to the Red Cliff reservation Baraga located his La Pointe mission on the sandy shore of where Catholic Ojibwe had been resettled. Madeline Island near the entrance of a slough, the same place Pope Pius IX elevated Baraga to bishop of the diocese of where the La Pointe band had a village next to a French trad Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, where he also relocated Baraga ing post in the previous century. Island men built the first St. in 1853. The diocese headquarters was later transferred to Joseph Church for him in 1835, a simple 20 x 50—foot hewn log Marquette, Michigan. With few priests under him, Baraga church in the "American style," referring to the familiar hori himself had to attend to the many needs of the diocese, which zontal log construction, topped by a high steeple with a bell included immigrant settlers and miners. The snowshoe priest that Baraga obtained from Detroit. Nearby, Baraga's new became the snowshoe bishop. He died at Marquette in 1868 at parishioners built a log house for him with a large room for a age 71 after a stroke attributable to his strenuous work. school. As was customary, he founded the cemetery near the Through the years, Frederic Baraga has been venerated for church. his piety and accomplishments. Since 1970, the diocese of Mar After the European trip, Baraga expanded the church to quette and the Baraga Association has been advancing a case accommodate a growing congregation with an attached priest for canonization of Frederick Baraga as a saint of the Catholic quarters. He brought with him a lay assistant from Slovenia to Church. One case of a miracle under investigation involves an serve as a housekeeper, but she left after two years. Baraga also alleged tumor on the liver of a patient that disappeared after built small cabins for Indian converts. Like other missionaries Baraga's stole was laid on the affected areas and prayers were and the U.S. government itself, Baraga believed that the Indi made for the bishop's intercession. Baraga is currently titled ans' mobile lifestyle hindered their acculturation: "For as long "Servant of God," the first step in the canonization process. as the Indians live in their huts, scattered in the forests, one Baraga is a national hero in his native land, and today staff at cannot civilize them easily nor accustom them to industry and Wisconsin Historical Society's Madeline Island Museum occa cleanliness." Instead, the government and missionaries would sionally meet Slovenians on pilgrimages to visit the places asso encourage them to be sedentary farmers. But the lands and ciated with Baraga's life and work.
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spanned at least 140 years. The excavations took place along the pathway of a planned Madeline Island sewer system. Under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, federal agencies are directed to ensure that important historical and archaeological places are not destroyed by construction proj ects the agencies engage in or authorize in the form of per mits or funding. However, if construction on an archaeological site cannot be avoided, federal regulations allow for the doc umentation and recovery of information and artifacts from the sites by professional archaeologists prior to the construc tion project. In this case, the sewer system was built, in part, with federal funding. Historical documents indicated that one segment of the sewer line would be placed in the vicinity of an eighteenth- century French fort and Baraga's nineteenth-century mission. Beloit College archaeologists who had been working on the island to identify archaeological sites confirmed the existence of archaeological deposits where the sewer was to be built. It included an eighteenth-century village as well as artifacts con sistent with the later mission. The complex was named the Marina site. Since there was no practical way to relocate the sewer system, which was necessary for the health and well being of island residents, the U.S. Department of the Interior contracted Beloit College to excavate a long but narrow area of the Marina Site where the sewer line had an impact. Unfor tunately, the work had to be done in some haste because the 4^ need to recover information was determined by federal and state authorities only after sewer construction was underway. Much of the sewer was to be laid in the modern road. The research team had the thick asphalt and clay road bed removed by heavy machinery, revealing the remains of Baraga's mission and the earlier Ojibwe village. The discovery of these sites was not surprising because the general location of the mission was well known, and previous archaeological testing had identified the presence of the village. What was a surprise was that so much remained preserved beneath a long-used modern road.
Baraga was baptised in this baptismal font in St. George Church, Mission Features Dobrnic, Slovenia. Remnants of Baraga's mission consisted of two cabin cel lars, a building enclosed by a fence, small pits full of refuse, and a wide scatter of artifacts. All of these overlaid, or were Unearthing the Mission dug into, the Ojibwe village, which included pits for food stor The remains of the original mission buildings eventually age and refuse, hundreds of dark post molds, and the imprints disappeared from sight, and some were paved over by a mod of wooden posts from the frameworks of wigwams and other ern road. However, in the late 1970s, archaeologists discovered structures from the previous century. the mission's remnants with thousands of artifacts. The archae Small, relatively shallow cellars, used for storage of food and ological evidence, along with historical documents, provides a other material, were common to cabins at the time. After aban picture of mission and MadeHne Island life during a time of donment, the holes became repositories for debris and refuse, change in the early nineteenth century. as was the case at the mission. One dimension was not deter Remnants of Baraga's La Pointe mission came to light in mined because it extended beyond the sewer line project area, 1975, when Beloit College sent a team of archaeologists to where the western part of the cellar is still preserved. To the excavate the area's dense archaeological deposits, which north, a smaller, deeper cellar was located nearby. It was con-
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structed with hewn pinewood planks and a double-planked floor secured by machine cut nails, which were available only after 1830. It measured 5 % x 3 feet across and 3 V2 feet deep. The cellars were packed with debris that included hundreds of discarded artifacts and capped with building remains such as pieces of wood, nails, rocks, and layers of clay mixed with whitish plaster. Clay was used for chinking between logs and plastering interior walls that were then whitewashed using a lime mixture. The tops of the features show signs of burning, a common prac tice used to rid the landscape of demolished buildings and piles of trash. As would be expected for a mission, artifacts found in the cellars are religious and secular, Euro-American and Indian, Top view of an adze and included items used by children. Broken pieces of individual MADELINE ISLAND MUSEUM artifacts were distributed throughout the deposits, which indi cated that the site was filled in a single episode. The area of the small, wood-planked cellar appears to have This complete iron axe bears the stamp of the United States Indian Department (USID). It would have been a been used for heating and cooking. The fill included large typical part ofan annuity payment distributed by the pieces from a cast iron stove and large rocks, presumably from federal department between 1838 and 1854. a stone chimney. Other stove pieces were found around the cel MADELINE ISLAND MUSEUM lar. The second cellar yielded artifacts associated with school ing—fragments from small blackboard slates and slate pencils. Baraga operated a school himself until 1838, but he wrote that he could not run a school at the mission and also minister to and approximately one foot deep. Some of the post bottoms the needs of Ojibwe in their distant camps. At that time, he remained in the trench, and some show signs of burning. A turned over the schooling of Catholic children to the Protestant wide gap on one side of the fenced enclosure suggests a gate mission with the understanding that there would be no reli entrance bracketed by two large gate posts. 4^ gious instruction. At first it appeared the walled trenched enclosure might be The cellars could have been part of two adjacent cabins, or from the walls of a building from the eighteenth-century they could have been two cellars designated for different types of French fort documented in the area. French settlers used a storage built under one large building. The nature and dates of building technique calledpofeaux en terre (posts in the ground) the artifacts indicate it is likely Baraga himself Hved on this spot with vertical wood poles set in a wall trench. However, archae until 1838 or 1841. It is not known whether Baraga moved into ologists realized that the small diameter and shallow posts the priest's house built when the church was expanded, or, when would not have supported a large building in the area's sandy he relocated to the village. At some point, the log house was dis soil. It seemed more likely that wall trench and interior support assembled and recycled, and the remains demolished and posts formed a fence. The wall trench and interior support thrown into the cellars on top of broken, used up, or worn-out posts originated in the mission-era deposits of the stratified site, material along with other garbage collected from the house and cutting through the earlier eighteenth-century stratum, elimi grounds around it. The tops of these dumps were then burned. nating the possibihty that the posts were built by the eighteenth- South of the cellars, the 1975 excavation exposed part of a century French settlers. Fences were a common feature of structure surrounded by a fence. This structure was further buildings at La Pointe in the nineteenth century. investigated two years later. The structure was represented by Key artifacts also date the structure to the time of the mis lines of large, flat-bottomed support posts, some set in the sion. A complete iron axe found stuck deeply into the fence line ground, which probably served as supports for wooden walls. bore the stamp of the United States Indian Department. It was Many other smaller post molds were found in the vicinity. typical of items distributed by this federal department as part Some of them may have been a part of the structure, while oth of annuity payments distributed between 1838 and 1854. ers may date before and after the structure was occupied. Mod The fence, at least, seems to have been short lived. A small pit ern drainage pipes run through the middle of the partially filled with a large mass of burned Indian corn cobs overlaid the excavated complex, and one end was disturbed by the con former fence line. Indian people of the region burned corn cobs struction of a modern marina. in such "smudge pits" to create black smoke for tanning hides or The fenced enclosure extended 29 feet and was made of keeping down the clouds of biting flies that plague northern sum small-diameter vertical wooden posts set or driven next to each mers. Just outside of the fence, archaeologists found a rosary cru other in a continuous wall trench five to sixteen inches wide cifix, a refuse pit, and piles of ash cleaned from fire places as
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Beloit College students excavating mission features in 1977 Map of Madeline Island showing the location of Baraga's mission
were commonly found around nineteenth-century houses. The pit contained food remains and many discarded artifacts similar to those found in the cellars, with the addition of a few shards of Cellar Feature 48 ceramic dishware, fragments of whiskey flasks, and glass bottle styles not generally available until 1850. The 1977 excavations produced a large number of tiny glass Cellar Feature 49 seed beads of the type used by the nineteenth-century Ojibwe to 4^ decorate garments, along with a few other objects such as pieces of long-stemmed white clay tobacco pipes, dishware shards, win dow glass, and nails. The information gathered to date suggests Marina these remains are from a house occupied by people of mixed Ojibwe and French Canadian ancestry who lived on the mis sion grounds late in history of the mission until the establish
ment of mainland reservations and the closing of the Madeline N330 _ Island mission in 1854. As with Baraga's probable house area, Fefuse Fea. 63 part of the structure remains unexcavated. Future archaeologi cal work should be able to confirm this interpretation. Smudge Pit
Notable Mission Artifacts House with Fence Among the different types of artifacts are those associated with Catholic rituals, including the broken base of a cut-glass candle stick holder, likely used in the church; part of blue beaded rosary; an ornate brass crucifix, also likely from a Baraga Mission and Otiier rosary; and fragments of dark green wine bottles that would Archaeological Features
have been used in the Mass ritual. C^ Refuse, storage or fire pits A remarkable brass religious medal bears beautifully cast images of saints. It may have belonged to Baraga. On one face is a relief figure identified as the popular Italian Saint Cathe- rina (Catherine) of Sienna (1347-1380), along with the Latin Grid Number C80 words AMOR MEUS CRUCIFIXUS, or "my love crucified." Perhaps it is no coincidence that Katarina, a spelling variant of Map of Marina site excavations indicating the location of the Baraga Catherina, was also the name of Baraga's beloved mother, who mission features instilled in him strong religious values and died early in his life.
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brass or copper ornaments worn by Indian people at the time and found elsewhere on the Marina site. A comparatively large number of stone (two) and clay (eight) marbles found in the mission indicates the pres ence of children. I. I. Ducatel, a pro fessor who visited in the nineteenth century, commented on the former popularity of the game at Cathohc institutions and said the Ojibwe boys called it ninijweh-ehdehdah." A few of the artifacts can be directly attributed to Indian use or manufac ture. These include hundreds of tiny glass trade seed beads, an arrow point cut from brass, and clothing orna ments called "tinkers" made from cut- up metal. Trade kettles were often used as material to make the arrow points as well as the coned-shaped tinkers. In the nineteenth century, bows and arrows were used, along with guns, for hunt ing and warfare, but arrow points of brass, copper, or iron had replaced the traditional stone points. Many of the 4^ arrow points found in the eighteenth- century village deposits at the Marina were made of stone. There were also two broken ceremonial smoking pipes made of stone. The stone pipes were carved from red pipestone, similar to the soft, eas ily carved rock from the famous catlin- ite quarries in western Minnesota, Map of the Chequamegan Bay and Apostle Islands area coming from similarly colored pipe- stone deposits found in northwestern Wisconsin. They would have had long, On the other face is Austrian patron Saint Leopoldus, sur decorated wooden stems, and their makers would have treated rounded by the Latin words IN ECCLESIIS BENEDICAM them with great reverence. How these heavy stone pipes could TE DOMINE, or "In the assemblies I will bless you. Lord," have been broken is unknown. They could have been inten taken from Psalms 26:12. It is likely the Leopoldine Society tionally smashed and discarded as the Indians embraced made the medals for Baraga during his lengthy European visit. Christianity. Naturally, Baraga took a dim view of the native In 1838, he wrote of a large supply of religious medals he had religion's "pagan" rituals. On the other hand, Baraga main at La Pointe.'*' No other medals like this have come to light. tained a strategy of gradual acculturation into the Christian Fragments of blackboard slate tablets and slate pencils attest world with baptism as the first step. In this approach, he fol to the schooling of children at the mission. Remarkably, the lowed the example of the earlier Jesuits. This contrasted with slate fragments found in the cellar still bear deeply etched fig the approach of the Protestant missionaries, which required ures made by the mission children. One slate fragment appears converts to undergo long and rigorous preparation to be to be a lettering assignment with a drawing of part of a sailing accepted into the Christian community. Baraga also admired boat on the reverse side. Scratched into another large fragment Ojibwe material culture, sending examples of beadwork and is the image of stick man wearing a bracelet similar to the thin pipes back to Europe.
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Fishing was a mainstay of Ojibwe subsistence and iron fish hooks similar to this one were among the presents that Baraga distributed to the Indians.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
This artifact drawing shows a small Artifacts found at the site included parts of a clay pipe and a bottle that contained essence of brass arrowhead peppermint, viewed as a cure-all at the COURTESY OFTHE AUTHOR time of Baraga's mission. It was found in the small cellar. DRAWING BY ROBERT SALZER Dishware and eating utensils discovered at the site show that Baraga kept a proper table and may have provided such items to Indians that lived at the mission. The features produced 4^ sherds from colorfully decorated, English-made teacups, saucers, bowls, and plates similar to those commonly found throughout North America at the time. One sherd from mission-era deposits at the Marina site bears the maker's mark of Staffordshire pottery, the mark Enoch Wood and Sons used between 1818 and 1846. England dominated most types of ceramic production at the time. Settlers, even on the frontier, put great emphasis on having up-to-date English dishware on their tables as comforting cultural symbols of civilization in an uncivilized world. English-made tableware could be found on American tables until the 1880s, when a domestic pottery industry for tableware first began to flourish, often imitating English wares. Eating utensils found include metal spoons, knives, and forks with bone, deer antler, and ivory handles. These were also common for the period. One teaspoon bears the stamp "BritW," indicating that it was Britannia Ware, an alloy produced as a less expensive substitute for pewter.^" In addition to wine, bottles from the mis Parts from colorful English-made tea cups, saucers, bowls, and sion cellars held ink and medicine. Baraga was plates were found at the site, including one sherd that bears the maker's mark of a Staffordshire pottery manufacturer, a prodigious writer, and along with numerous let Enoch Wood and Sons, used between 1818 and 1846. ters and reports, he found time to write a 200-page ser MADELINE ISLAND MUSEUM mon book in 1838. Two bottles, one virtually complete, held
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West profile of the large cellar dig site, feature 49 (see map of the excavation, p. 8)
This image shows the top of the smaller wood-planked cellar, one of Baraga used La Pointe as a base and traveled throughout the Lake two at the dig site, feature 48 (see map of the excavation, p. 8) Superior country launching other missions. He earned the nickname "the snowshoe priest" because of his frequent and arduous winter travel.
essence of peppermint, a medicine widely viewed as cure-all. Like other medicines bottled for patent, the elixir contained a fair dose of alcohol along with the other ingredients. Two refuse pits, one located next to the fenced structure, yielded containers for a more powerful form of alcohol. Fragments of "scroll" type whiskey flasks were deposited late in the history of the mission. Certainly these items would have been prohibited at the mission by Baraga, who often wrote of the evils of alco hol for Indian people. Nonetheless, it was still made available by unscrupulous merchants and traders, and alcohol would not have been foreign to other hard-bitten islanders of many back Many artifacts found at the site were grounds. The context of the bottles indicates that the imbibing associated with Catholic rituals took place after Baraga, with his watchful gaze, had relocated including this ornate brass crucifix, that was likely part of a rosary. to the village. MADELINE ISLAND MUSEUM Entertainment and music is represented by a widely used instrument referred to as ajew's harp or jaw harp, played by plac ing the frame between the teeth and plucking a flexible metal vibrator The iron specimen is broken and corroded, but a small
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Religious relics from the Baraga site include this brass medal with images of Saint Leopoldus (left) and Saint Catherina (right)
MADELINE ISLAND MUSEUM
section of the vibrator is still attached to the frame. Although the in some areas along the bay since the large body of water mod jaw harp is normally associated with European Americans, erated extreme temperatures and extended the growing season Ducatel also observed Ojibwe playing this simple instrument beyond that of the interior. The island itself is not a good place that they called madwaweche gance. Use of the instrument on to grow crops in quantity because soils are either dense, hard-to- the island can be traced back to the eighteenth century in the tiU clay or loose beach sand that does not trap sufficient moisture. form of brass specimens found at the Marina site on Madeline Instead, Ojibwe planted their gardens at a warm-weather vil Island and other fur trade-related sites in the region. lage along the floodplain of the Bad River at the present day Among other artifacts are shell and bone clothing buttons, Odanah, now a part of the Bad River Reservation. 4^ parts to a woman's and a child's leather shoe, common scis This economic pattern required mobility. Baraga wrote that sors, a fragmentary glass tumbler, and fragments of the long- the fall and winter were difficult times for him to attend to stemmed clay pipes that are ubiquitous on nineteenth-century needs of the Indians, like visiting the sick, because the Ojibwe archaeological sites. The small, wood-planked cellar produced dispersed into small groups to fish and trap. He writes of walk a large, well used, and much dulled iron adze, which would ing three miles in each direction every day to visit camps on have been used for heavy woodworking such as hewing logs for Madeline Island, returning long after dark. building construction. Subsistence-related artifacts found at the mission also related to gardening, hunting, and fishing: a wrought-iron hoe, Mission Food and Subsistence gun parts, a brass arrow point, and a large iron fishhook. Fish Food remains show that the residents, and no doubt Baraga hooks were among the gifts that Baraga distributed to the Indi himself, relied heavily on the native Ojibwe pattern of subsis ans. Protestant missionaries, unfamiliar with the importance tence: mainly fish (whitefish, suckers, and sturgeon), small of gift giving in native culture to establish and maintain social mammals (beaver, rabbit), waterfowl (duck, loon), and culti bonds, accused Baraga of bribing the Indians to accept vated and gathered plants (corn and berries). The Catholicism. Chequamegon Bay area offered a unique cluster of foods avail able at different times and places that had long provided Baraga "Relics" and Places Indian people with stable sources of food. The artifacts found at the mission are housed at the Wis Traders, missionaries, and early settlers adopted many consin Historical Society's Madeline Island Museum. They are aspects of native subsistence, and they often relied on food frequently on display in changing exhibits, and scholars and obtained by the Indians. The newcomers added livestock, others engaged in a variety of historical studies are able to use sugar, flour, lard, tea, and barrels of salted pork and beef Small them for research. A permanent exhibit on Baraga and his gardens produced potatoes and other vegetables. Madeline Island mission work occupies a room in the older Fishing was the mainstay of Ojibwe subsistence, and the wing in the museum. In the museum vaults, the museum also butchered beaver bone suggests continued participation in the carefully stores the colorful vestments used by Baraga during fur trade. The Ojibwe would have sold the furs and eaten the Mass. Nearby is the rebuilt St. Joseph Church that burned in leftover meat. Despite the northern latitude, corn could be raised the late nineteenth century. One mile to the south is the loca-
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tion of Baraga's original mission, visibly represented by the cemetery where Catholic islanders were interred into the twen tieth century. The graves of Catholic convert and Ojibwe leader Bezhike, or Great Buffalo, and noted fur trader Michel Cadotte are buried there. Cadotte married Equauysayway, daughter of Chief White Crane, and the island now bears her Christian name, Madeline. A beautiful roadside shrine to "The Snowshoe Priest" is located on Highway 41 in upper Michigan between Uanse and the town named after him, Baraga. There is another Baraga shrine near his chapel on Indian Lake near Manistique, Michi gan. There are now historical sites at Marquette and Sault Sainte Marie, Baraga's later homes in Michigan. The remains of the great missionary are interred in a crypt in St. Peter's Cathedral at Marquette. If Bishop Frederick Baraga one day attains sainthood, all of these places, along with the relics from the mission archaeological excavations, will take on whole new level of worldwide religious simificance. IM^
Notes
1. I would like to thank Elizabeth Delene of the Diocese of Marquette and Bishop Baraga Association and Sharcc Peterson and Steve Cothcrman of the Madeline Island Museum for assistance in preparing this article. Hamilton Nelson Ross, La Pointe: Village Outpost on Madeline Island (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2000), 91. 2. The term was widely used in French Canada and generally corresponds to "half breeds" in U.S. treaty documents. It usually referred to the descendents of French or French Canadian men and Indian women. 3. Patty Locw, Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2001) 60. 4. Baraga Letters, Frederick Baraga Archives, Bishop Baraga Association, Diocese of Marquette, Bishop Baraga shrine near Baraga, Michigan Marquette, Michigan, Frederick Baraga to the Leopoldinen Stiftun, September 28, 1835. 5. Ross, La Pointe: Village Outpost on Madeline Island. 91. 6. P. Chrysostomus Verwyst, O.Y.M.., Life and Labors of Rt. Rev. Federic Baraga (Milwaukee, WI: M. H. Wilzius & Co., 1900) 7. Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwc [Chippewa] Language (Detroit: 1850) 22. Ducetel, 'A Fortnight Among the Chippewa of Lake Superior," 166-167. and Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language (Cincinnati: 1853). 23. Robert A. Birmingham, "Historic Period Indian Archeology at La Pointe in Lake Supe 8. Brigitte Vacha and Walter Pohl, Die Welt der Bahenberger: Schleier, Kreuz und Schwert rior: An Overview." (Graz, Austria: Styria, 1995); "Saints and Angels," Catholic Online, www.catholic.org/saints. 24. Ross, La Pointe: Village Outpost on Madeline Island, 111. 9. Baraga Letters, Frederick Baraga, La Pointe, August 9, 1835. 25. Baraga Letters, Frederick Baraga to the Leopoldinen Stiftung , Dec. 28, 1835. 10. Baraga Letters, Bishop Frederic Baraga to Archbishop Mildc, Archbishop of Vienna, 26. Letter from Rev. Sherman Hall to American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis Director of the Leopoldine Society, February 12, 1844. sions, October 14, 1836, "Ahserman Hall Papers 1831-1875," St. Paul, Minnesota Historical 11. Koskey, John Fee and Loreene Zeno Koskey, "Baraga Miracle Sent to Rome," Society. http://dioceseofmarquette.org/upcarticle.asp?upcID=2343; Sheree Peterson, Madeline 27. See Baraga sites on the Bishop Baraga Association web site, www.bishopbaraga.org/bara- Island Museum, personal communication, September 3, 2010. gasitcs.htm. 12. Robert A. Birmingham and Robert J. Salzer, "The Marina Site," report submitted to the United States Department of Interior, Park Service, 1984. A copy of this report is available in the Office of the State Archaeologist, Historic Preservation Division, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 13. Robert A. Birmingham and Robert J. Salzer, "The Marina Site," 1984; Robert A. Birm ingham, "Historic Period Indian Archeology at La Pointe in Lake Superior: An Overview," Robert A. Birmingham served as Wis The Wisconsin Archeologist (new series) 73, no. 3-4, (1992): 177-198. 14. This method of cabin construction is described in 1827 on Madeline Island by Indian consin state arcliaeologist from 1989- Agent George Johnson, George Johnston Journal, Microfilm MSS F-5, 1824—1828; photo 2004. He currently teaches anthropology copy in Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University. 15. Baraga Letters, Frederick Baraga, La Pointe, to Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere, Detroit, July at UW-Waukesha. He is author of a num- 1, 1842. A w^ ^fl^^^^_ ^^'' °f articles on Wisconsin archaeology 16. Baraga Letters, Frederick Baraga, La Pointe, to Rev. Vincent Badin, Detroit, March 7, 1838. |fl ^^Hl^^^HE and the co-author of two award-winning 17. Prof. 1.1. Ducatel, "A Fortnight among the Chippewa of Lake Superior," The Minnesota ^^L.^^^^^^1 books: Indian Mounds of Wisconsin and Archaeologist 36, no 4 (1977): 166. Reprinted from The United States Catholic Magazine, Jan. and Feb. 1877. Altaian: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town. Forthcoming is a 18. Arnold A. Kowalsky and Dorthy E. Kowalsky, Encyclopedia of Marks on American, Eng book on life at Fort Blue Mounds to be published by the Wiscon lish, and European Earthenware, Ironstone and Stoneware 1780-1980 (Atglen, PA: Schiffer sin Historical Society Press. He is the 2001 recipient of the Increase Publishing, Ltd., 1999), 281. 19. Edwin Atlcc Barber, TTic Pottery and Porcelain of the United States and Marks of Amer Lapham Medal from the Wisconsin Archeological Society for hi: ican Potters, (New York: Feingold and Lewis Publishing, 1976). contributions to Wisconsin archaeology. 20. Gail Bleden and Michael Snodin, Collecting for Tomorrow: Spoons (Radnor Penn, Chilton Book Company, 1976), 12. 21. Verwyst, O.F.M., Life and Labors ofRt. Rev. Frederic Baraga, 191.
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•FOR PRESIDENT I \ Promotional material from MacArthur's unsuccessful bid for president
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AN LTHE iii:iTC]a:is]:.]:.s WISCONSIN'S FIRST MILITARY FAMILIES
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A collection of Billy Mitchell's medals, on display at the i^ National Museum of the U.S. "^Ifc Air Force
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evered by the public in 1946 as one of the most heroic R men in America, five-star General Douglas MacArthur, key strategist of the victory in the Pacific theater, stood at the center of national media attention. Asked by one curious reporter which path the man who over saw the surrender of Imperial Japan would pursue next, MacArthur replied, "I expect to settle down in Milwaukee, and on the way to the house I'm going to stop at a furniture store and buy the biggest red rocker in the shop."' Perhaps his answer didn't stand out at the time, but General MacArthur was clearly signaling a foray into the political arena. Aware that one of the first major battles in the 1948 race for the Republican nomination for presi dent would take place in Wisconsin, the general used rhetoric and tactics that would impress today's sharpest political operatives, framing himself as Wiscon sin's native son. MacArthur wrote, "I inside the MacArthur for President campaign office, undated have been informed that petitions have 4^ been in Madison signed by many of my fellow citizens of Wisconsin, presenting my name to the electorate for consider ation at the primary on April 6th." Ultimately, the voters of Wisconsin brought an end to what less, thoroughly striking ways over nearly a century, there still was perhaps MacArthur's grandest ambition, granting him less exists a glaring disparity in their places in state history. than a third of the total votes needed to carry the state. Many Perhaps no better case exists to highlight how differently the of the most damaging attacks to his campaign came from Sen legacies of these families are remembered than to consider the ator Joseph McCarthy, who made accusations that the general third generation. General Douglas MacArthur and famed avi had no real ties to Wisconsin and had established residence in ation pioneer General Billy Mitchell. Their family histories the state solely for political gain. reveal incredible similarities between these two men, both of Whatever his true motivation, to discover that General whom emerged from World War I as top military minds of MacArthur claimed allegiance to the state at all would likely their generation with roots planted deeply in the state. Closely surprise many. Certainly, Douglas MacArthur remains one of considering their family heritage and historical contributions to the most recognized military leaders in our nation's history, the state uncovers a rare and unique look at these two distin but his Wisconsin roots have escaped contemporary popular guished Wisconsin families that produced iconic military and consciousness. political leaders for generations. Although General MacArthur's brief political run has been forgotten over time, his Wisconsin heritage stems from one of Arthur MacArthur and Alexander Mitchell: the greatest military families the state has ever produced. Mil Statehood and New Beginnings (1848-1860) itarily, politically, and culturally, the Wisconsin MacArthurs From the earliest years of Wisconsin history, the made significant contributions, but they have not been widely MacArthurs and Mitchells were fixtures in the state's political recognized in comparison to their close friends, the Mitchell and financial affairs. Both families immigrated to the state family. To this day, the Mitchells are recognized in the state as from the Scottish highlands and were among the earliest set one of the most celebrated and historically notable famihes.^ tlers. As one of the state's most successful businessmen, Alexan Indeed, although the two families were intertwined in count- der Mitchell's story represents the hopes of many young
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Arthur McArthur Sr., grandfather of General Douglas MacArthur, Alexander Mitchell came to Milwaukee from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, moved to Wisconsin in 1848 and was elected lieutenant governor in in 1839, becoming a clerk at the Marine and Fire Insurance Company. 4^ 1855 as the running mate of William Barstow.When Barstow resigned In his almost fifty years in Wisconsin, Mitchell wore many hats, on March 21,1856, McArthur served as governor for four days until including banker, rail baron, and politician. the office was assumed by Coles Bashford.
immigrants. When he arrived in Wisconsin in 1839, he began newspaperman who moved to Milwaukee in 1845 to become as a clerk at the Marine Fire and Insurance Company and editor of the Sentinel. From the outset, Arthur proved to be a quickly rose to the top of the financial world. Within a number skilled community leader, joining his close friend Mitchell in of years, Mitchell garnered the reputation as the "Rothschild organizing and leading the Robert Burns society, a club for of Milwaukee," as not only the finest financier in the state but Wisconsin's Scottish community. The original impetus for the also an "organizing genius" and "railroad titan." One of the club was to raise money for countrymen still living in Scotland, most powerful men in the midwest, he remained a popular fig who were suffering from the same famine that famously ure in public life and even served two terms as a U.S. Repre plagued Ireland, but the meetings became a regular occasion sentative to Congress. To this day, his mansion on the corner for Scots to organize, relive past stories, and honor both Scot of 9th Street and Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee land and the United States. remains a historical treasure. It houses the exclusive Wisconsin Deriving from the clan heritage of the Scottish Highlands, Club, a tribute to his industrial, financial, and civic contribu Scots in Wisconsin numbered far fewer than other ethnic tions that helped define the city in its earliest years.'^ groups, although records show that they provided, with the Following Mitchell and the thousands of other families that help of MacArthur and Mitchell, major contributions "in came to Wisconsin from across the United States and Europe almost all the areas of community life, economic, religious, during the nineteenth century, the MacArthur family moved to educational and cultural." This was the tradition in which the state in 1848. Arthur MacArthur was a trusted friend of both Mitchell and MacArthur lived their lives and raised their Alexander Mitchell and came to the state at his urging with families, and it would be the same customs and culture that the promise of "excellent opportunities for a young Scottish would mold their grandchildren decades later. lawyer in Milwaukee." Mitchell and MacArthur were born As Mitchell pursued his business interests, MacArthur the same year in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and they likely first focused on government and political leadership in the state. connected through their mutual friend Rufus King, a wealthy In one of the more bizarre stories of Wisconsin history.
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Arthur MacArthur Jr. was stationed in the Civil War flag of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin, the regiment in which Philippines between 1899 and 1901. Lieutenant Arthur MacArthur Jr. served
MacArthur, having been elected lieutenant governor, served General Arthur MacArthur Jr. and as acting governor for four days in March 1856 after the gov Senator John Lendrum Mitchell (1860-1865) ernor, William Barstow, resigned shortly after the election in Like their fathers, Arthur MacArthur Jr. and John Lendrum the face of campaign corruption and bribery charges.' At the Mitchell were good friends and would prove to be courageous end of his term as lieutenant governor, MacArthur returned to leaders and public servants. Both men were instrumental in Milwaukee, where he served a distinguished career as a circuit major Union victories and made substantial contributions to court judge and continued his involvement Wisconsin's Scot Wisconsin's involvement in the Civil War. Arthur's son Dou tish community. glas and John's son Billy would both be deeply influenced by A century later, Douglas MacArthur and Billy Mitchell the stories of their fathers' war experiences. relied on the principles that their grandfathers established in As the Civil War intensified. Judge MacArthur could not the state's earliest years as a foundation from which to confront dissuade his son, Arthur Jr., from his eagerness to join the the challenges and events of a changed national landscape. Union army. Though the judge pursued his every political con Businessman and philanthropist Alexander Mitchell and Judge nection, up to President Lincoln himself, he could not secure Arthur MacArthur thrived on a common bond rooted in sto an appointment for Arthur Jr. at West Point, which would have ries of the Scottish Highlands and developed in the young, given his son four years of study and maturity before he would booming state of Wisconsin. The deep gratitude they felt for be sent to battle. At the same time, Alexander Mitchell and the the opportunities, culture, and camaraderie they found in Wis Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce were forming a new regi consin can be seen in the contributions their families made in ment, the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, in following generations. which his 19-year-old son,John, enlisted as an officer. With the
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which Arthur MacArthur would be awarded the Medal of Honor. Under a fierce and unrelenting barrage of enemy fire, I many of the company commanders and officers on horseback were slain, and the troops were ready to retreat. According to accounts, in a moment of unimaginable bravery, the 18-year- old MacArthur grabbed his regiment's national flag on the ridge's slope, "[sjhouting 'On, Wisconsin!' to his momentarily stunned comrades . .. carried the flag to the crest," and rallied the Company's men to a successful charge on Confederate forces. For their heroism, John Mitchell was cited for gal lantry in action and MacArthur, having consistently proven his military prowess and leadership, was brevetted to the rank of colonel and given command of the Twenty-fourth. When he was 19 years old, he was the youngest colonel in the Union army and was affectionately referred to as Wisconsin's "Boy Colonel" by his troops and the national media. When the Wisconsin Twenty-fourth finally returned home, they were greeted with a hero's welcome as thousands turned out to the train station to welcome the 266 survivors of the 1150 men that had served in the regiment. They marched through the city of Milwaukee as the massive crowds cheered wildly in appreciation of their service and sacrifice on behalf of the Union and the state of Wisconsin.'*
The Third Generation: Douglas MacArthur and Billy Mitchell (1880-1912) 4^ Arthur Jr. had proven himself a national hero and chose to continue what would become a celebrated career in the U.S. Army after the war. John Mitchell, however, suffered wounds that left him Httle choice but to exit the mihtary, which offered him the opportunity to return to Wisconsin and continue his service in other arenas. Applying his vision of public service to banking and politics, John Mitchell emerges as quite a different personality from his shrewd and hard-headed father." The younger Mitchell was an "idealist," as committed to the pursuit Arthur MacArthur Jr. served with distinction in the Twenty-fourth of culture as to finance and business. Determined to uphold his Wisconsin during the Civil War and was eventually awarded the family legacy of state leadership, Mitchell built on his Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of contributions and served as president of the Milwaukee School Missionary Ridge, November 25,1863. Board and as a member of the State Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and ultimately the U.S. Senate. The career choices of their fathers dictated the circum assurance of having close friends in the same regiment to watch stances under which Douglas MacArthur and Billy Mitchell over his son, Judge MacArthur secured a position for Arthur Jr. would grow up. Douglas and his older brother, Arthur III, were as adjutant of the new regiment, claiming his age to be 19, raised moving from base to base and state to state, following when, in fact, he was only 17 years old. The enlisted men their father as he progressed through the ranks. Although mil teased Arthur as the youngest officer of the regiment, but he itary service kept his family from his home state, Arthur "took the hazing with good grace . . . and John Mitchell [was] McArthur Jr. firmly believed that his children should grow up always ready with words of encouragement." in the tradition of the community in which he was raised. Hun The Wisconsin Twenty-fourth would face some of the dreds of miles away from the Wisconsin Scots and without the harshest battles and campaigns in the war. Their most intense advanced education system of Milwaukee, Arthur took com fight, on November 25, 1863, at Missionary Ridge during the mand of his children's formal and informal education. He Battle of Chattanooga, would prove the defining moment for taught his boys the art of military and political leadership and,
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most importantly, "he instilled in them a stern sense of disci pline and pride in the family heritage." Billy Mitchell was born in France during an extended fam ily vacation and spent most of his early life in Wisconsin on his four-hundred-acre family estate, Meadowmere. He attended school in Racine until his father was elected to the U.S. Senate and the family moved to Washington DC. Though raised more physically connected to his family's home state, the lessons of his childhood are astonishingly similar to those Douglas MacArthur learned hundreds of miles away. The similarity of accounts describing the boys reveals an insightful glimpse of the men they would become. Both young boys grew up enamored of their fathers' Civil War exploits. Of Mitchell, it was written that he "passed many evenings in the parlor of the big house at Meadowmere thrilling to his father's
John Lendrum Mitchell, son of Alexander Mitchell, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a businessman and a philanthropist, as well as a politician. In 1893, the Wisconsin legislature elected Mitchell U.S. Senator.
Letter written by John Lendrum Mitchell to his mother during his service with the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin in the Civil War
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Stories of raising and leading Company I, his memoirs, Douglas recalls the inspi Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Volunteer." ration and envy of his first encounters Of Douglas in World War I, "fellow offi with Billy Mitchell, who was home cers would say that when he went to from his first wartime deployment in France in 1917 as chief of staff of the Cuba. Mitchell had quit college at the 42nd infantry Division, he had already outbreak of the Spanish-American War fought . . . the Civil War," because he to return to Wisconsin and enlist in the had so thoroughly studied and relived same regiment his father and Arthur each of his father's battles. MacArthur Jr. made famous during Likewise, Douglas grew up engrossed the Civil War. Returning from Cuba, in stories of his Scottish ancestors and he had recently earned an officer's his Wisconsin roots, discovered on his commission and was on leave in Mil frequent visits to his grandfather. Judge waukee before taking his new orders. Arthur MacArthur. In his memoirs, At the many parties thrown to cele Douglas recalled how proudly the judge brate the return of Second Lieutenant spoke when he retold his stories. He Billy Mitchell to his hometown, the fondly recalled that he "could listen to MacArthurs were frequently honored his anecdotes for hours."'^ Both boys guests. In his memoirs, Douglas recalls his were instilled with profound awe of their reverence and awe for BiUy and how "the family culture and tradition and held in girls all flocked" to the young officer.^^ the highest regard a balance of alle Intentiy focused on his goal of joining the giance and gratitude to their home state flght and pursuing a military education, and nation. Douglas enrolled in West Side High The MacArthur family finally School and achieved the highest marks on returned to Wisconsin in 1897 as Dou competitive entrance exams, which, com glas was preparing to take entrance bined with a personal letter of recom 4^ exams to compete for a coveted nomina mendation from Senator John Mitchell, tion to West Point. His father, an secured his acceptance to the U.S. Mili upwardly mobile army colonel, was tary Academy. Though there was minor assigned as adjutant general to the controversy in the office of Wisconsin Department of the Dakotas, headquar Congressman Theobald Otjen regarding tered in St. Paul, MN. Douglas and his the legitimacy of MacArthur's residency mother moved into the Plankinton in his district, consensus was reached that, House in Milwaukee, and the colonel in the words of Governor George Peck, commuted every weekend by train. The "as his father was recentiy promoted [to
MacArthurs appear to have loved being Major Douglas MacArthur, undated the rank of general] as a Wisconsin sol back in Wisconsin, as both Colonel and dier, the son cannot have lost his right to Mrs. MacArthur spent the majority of a residence in Wisconsin . . . [Douglas] their time connecting with old friends would be a great credit to Wisconsin." and socializing among the state's leaders. Like old times, Colonel As Douglas graduated from West Point in 1903, the MacArthur and John Lendrum Mitchell continued to be the Mitchells and MacArthurs were again making a proud repu closest of friends, and by some accounts, the old friends "enjoyed tation for the state of Wisconsin in military service. Douglas socializing more than their wives did." graduated first in his class and achieved one of the most stellar Though Douglas and Billy were not raised together, they records of any cadet in West Point history. His older brother certainly had an appreciation for each other and played a major graduated years prior from Annapolis as the only Wisconsinite role in continuing the family friendship. Considering the roles in his class and had started a distinguished career in the Navy. they would play in each other's future lives, the circumstances Their father, Arthur McArthur Jr., now a prominent general, and stories of their first interactions are fascinating. Still new served in one of the highest-ranking jobs in the army as the to Milwaukee, the 17-year-old Douglas "fell hopelessly in love" military governor of the Philippines, fighting the Spanish- with Ruth Mitchell, Billy's sister, and dedicated his first writ American War. One of the most courageous and distinguished ten poems to her. Though the relationship didn't last, a more warriors under General MacArthur's command was a young memorable friendship soon began with her older brother. In lieutenant from the Signal Corps, Billy Mitchell.
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Tnfsi^^
The USS/4/abomo was used as a target for aerial bombing by the First Provisional Air Brigade, September 23,1921. 4^ A war between two imperial powers, the Spanish-American War largely consisted of military campaigns contesting posses sion of Spanish-controlled island nations, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. During the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, Billy Mitchell's exploits against Filipino insurgents earned him a reputation as a skilled leader, gifted military thinker, and outspoken advocate for his soldiers, which routinely warranted recognition from General MacArthur. In a letter to his old friend John Mitchell, General MacArthur wrote, "I want to tell you that your son has done admirable service out here, has been a most useful officer in the Signal Corps, is exemplary in every way . . . His youthful appearance reminds me very much of how we looked forty years ago, but it is hard to realize that such a length of time has elapsed since we entered the service."^^ Douglas also joined the fight in the Philippines under his father, and the close his tory and mutual respect between the two families was only made stronger by how invaluable each of the boys proved to be in MacArthur's army.
A young Billy Mitchell poses next to an airplane, ca. 1916. In 1908, Mitchell saw a flight demonstration by Orville Wright at Fort Myer, Virginia, which led to a lifelong fascination with, and advocacy for, air power.
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Brigader General Billy Mitchell, ca. 1925, was a highly General Billy Mitchell and his wife enter Morrow Aviation Board for his court martial decorated officer. hearing on September 25,1925. 4^
Upon his return from the Philippines, General Arthur Milwaukee Blue Booli of 1908-09, published to distinguish MacArthur was again welcomed home to Wisconsin by a prominent members of the community, lists Lt. Gen. and Mrs. crowd of thousands. Having achieved the rank of three-star MacArthur, as well as Lt. Douglas MacArthur, as "members of general, a rank only previously awarded to twelve men in U.S. the highest society."^^ Wisconsin's "Boy Colonel," who had risen history, Arthur MacArthur was honored with a parade to the highest ranks of the U.S. Army, won the praise and admi through downtown Milwaukee led by the state's most power ration of his fellow Wisconsinites and was reportedly happiest ful and infiuential citizens. According to one biographer, "The among his friends from the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Ful MacArthur name meant something to the citizens of the city, filling his father's legacy, Arthur continued to be active with Wis and many were honoring not only General MacArthur but consin's Scottish community and delivered a keynote speech on also his late father. Judge Arthur MacArthur . . . one of the June 27, 1909, at the dedication of the Robert Burns Statue, best-loved men in Milwaukee." which still stands today at Knapp and Prospect streets in Mil Soon after, Douglas received orders for his first duty as a mil waukee. In 1912, he passed away while giving an address to his itary engineer with the District Office of Engineers in Milwau old unit. His life proved to his sons that even an immigrant's son kee in 1907. While working on the eastern shore of the state from Wisconsin could reach the top of the chain of command reconstructing harbors in Lake Michigan, he would also spend and make a significant difference in the course of world events. endless hours discussing politics and history with his newly retired father and attending functions with his mother, Mary Wisconsinites in World War 1 (1912-1945) "Pinky" MacArthur, a famed Milwaukee socialite. "Pinky," the During World War I, the MacArthur brothers and Billy daughter of a wealthy Virginia family, had a famously close rela Mitchell continued to fight and lead. Douglas became one of tionship with Douglas, having moved to West Point to support the most decorated U.S. soldiers of the war. His ingenuity and him during his years at the U.S. Military Academy. Delighted military acumen expedited his rise through the ranks to his to have her son stationed at home, she was "determined to have position as brigadier general and commander of the Eighty- Douglas beside her during Milwaukee social functions." fourth Infantry Brigade. Arthur III was a pioneer submarine General MacArthur savored his remaining years in Wiscon commander, earning the distinguished Navy Cross for his inno sin and enjoyed a respected and honored position in society. The vative work protecting convoys from German U-boats in the
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4^ NATIONAL ARCHIVES, 1 n -SC-407101 Douglas MacArthur wades ashore at Leyte, October 1944, fulfilling a vow he made two years earlier to return to the Philippines.
Atlantic. Brigadier General Billy Mitchell was quickly recog nized as one of the top pilots in the U.S. forces and ultimately commanded all U.S. squadrons in France. Building on the connections of their families and their shared experiences in the Philippines and Europe, Douglas and Billy developed a close friendship in the postwar period. In 1920, MacArthur, serving as commandant of the U.S. Mili tary Academy, made an important and significant gesture by inviting Mitchell, then assistant chief of the U.S. Army Air Service, to speak to the West Point cadets on the rapidly devel oping topic of air power. Years prior, before the U.S. joined World War I, Mitchell was sent to France as an official military observer. He was the first U.S. Army officer to venture into the infamous trenches, a brave action for which the French would award him the Croix de Guerre. Under fire, witnessing the ghastly conditions of trench warfare firsthand, then Major Mitchell became con vinced that the air would be the unquestionable battle space of the future.' His conviction led him to vast successes in the
Douglas MacArthur with his familiar pipe
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General Douglas MacArthur received an honorary degree from Marquette University in May 1951.
allied victory, even garnering the young visionary personal fought under Douglas' father. In 1925, however, Douglas was praise and congratulations from General Pershing. As in the given what he later described as, "One of the most distasteful Philippines, his headstrong, outspoken manner and willingness orders I ever received." He was sent to Capitol Hill to serve to speak his mind to power had won him favor and admira as a juror on the court-martial trial of his close friend. tion. In the 1920s, however. Brigadier General Mitchell con Mitchell's advocacy for increasing U.S. air defenses at all costs tinuously and aggressively pushed his views on the primacy of grew even more emphatic, and some of his more shocking tac airpower. He often operated outside of the established military tics of proving air dominance enraged the military establish chain of command, leading many of the top military officers to ment. "After the crash of a navy seaplane and an aged navy view him as abrasive, obsessed, and out of line. dirigible within days of each other, Mitchell released a As Mitchell's reputation in the military grew more con scathing, 6,000-word statement in which he charged that: tentious. General MacArthur's support for his friend provided '[TJhese accidents are the direct results of incompetency, crim Mitchell a prestigious forum from which to share his vision and inal neghgence and almost treasonable administration of the demonstrated McArthur's significant faith and trust in national defense by the War and Navy departments.' In the Mitchell. According to accounts. General Mitchell's stories of same statement, Mitchell also predicted, correctly, that he the air war in France and his predictions about the future of would be court-martialed." Widely popular with the general aviation warfare captivated the cadets at West Point. He was public, able to make national headlines at any time, and overly given a standing ovation by many of the men who would go influential with Congress, Billy Mitchell created nothing less on to lead the service in the following decades. than a media frenzy with his court-martial, which likely only The two generals shared a great deal of personal history condemned him further in the eyes of his senior officers. and built a lasting friendship on mutual affection and respect. Although Mitchell was convicted of insubordination and Billy even visited Douglas in the Philippines as part of his hon subsequently resigned his officer's commission, in later decades eymoon, where the two toured the islands where they had his vision would prove to be prophetic, and his advocacy for
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air power ultimately helped the allies win World War II. The MacArthur's legacy, a subtle yet meaningful connection to his "Billy Mitchell Affair," including his court-martial and later family roots and his paternal ancestry remains very close to vindication, is a key piece of Mitchell's legacy and has become him. Only a few hundred feet away from the MacArthur a notably proud piece of Wisconsin history. Surely, the fact that Memorial in downtown Norfolk stands another legendary sym I Douglas was instrumental in the trial should be no surprise bol of his home state's contribution to national defense, the since, almost as if by fate, MacArthur's history entwines with battleship USS Wisconsin. The decommissioned battleship Mitchell's throughout the most significant events of their lives. fought in support of MacArthur through some of the fiercest The two maintained their close friendship throughout the battles of the twentieth century, in Leyte Gulf and in North trial and afterwards until Mitchell's death in 1936. General Korea, and now rests only blocks from the general. I Mitchell would have been perfectly pleased by the knowledge Billy Mitchell and Douglas MacArthur are credited with that his good friend Douglas was in command of the Pacific shaping the nature of warfare and postwar society in the same I theater as U.S. air forces played an unmistakably instrumental pioneering manner in which their grandfathers developed Wis role in defeating Imperial Japan. In 1945, nine years after consin in the first days of statehood. These two families repre Mitchell's death, MacArthur confided to Wisconsin Senator sented the state on the world stage for decades, among the Alexander Wiley that he had cast the lone dissenting vote highest echelons of business and industry, state and federal gov against Mitchell's conviction. What is more, he wrote that ernment, and military leadership from the Civil War through Mitchell knew it and had "never ceased to express his grati the Korean War. General Arthur MacArthur and General tude." MacArthur's memoirs noted, "When the verdict was Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to both be reached, many believed I had betrayed my friend . . . Nothing awarded the nation's highest military award, the Medal of could be further from the truth. I did what I could on his Honor, and General Billy Mitchell is now widely credited as the behalf, and I helped save him from dismissal. That he was father of the U.S. Air Force. Their family legacies are a lasting wrong in the violence of his language was self-evident; that he tribute to the extraordinary accompHshments made possible by was right in his thesis is equally true and incontrovertible." the pioneering settling families of the state of Wisconsin. IK4I
The Mitchell and MacArthur Wisconsin Legacy General MacArthur's active military career came to an end USS Wisconsin berthed at the National Maritime Center-Nauticus in during the Korean War when President Truman relieved the Norfolk, VA. general from command of U.S. and NATO forces. In 1951, he made Wisconsin one of the marquee stops on his nationwide farewell tour. As they had for his father after the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, "staggering crowds" of Wiscon sinites turned out in Milwaukee to cheer and thank the gen eral for his victories and sacrifices throughout his incredible life. Accepting an honorary degree from Marquette University and honoring the state's integral connection to his family his tory, MacArthur addressed crowds of tens of thousands. "I can not tell you with what emotion I come once again to my ancestral home," he proclaimed. "It was 52 years ago that Mil waukee sent me forth into the military service, and I now report to you that service is ended."^^ General Billy Mitchell proved to be the type of pioneering, strong-willed visionary that the leaders of Wisconsin immedi ately embraced as emblematic of their native sons. Along with three generations of his family, he chose to be laid to rest at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee. "Although I should like to be with the pilots and my comrades at Arlington National Cemetery," he said, "I feel that it is better for me to go back to Wisconsin, the home of my family." Though Wisconsin was his home state, MacArthur chose to honor his mother, for whom he had a famously deep affec tion, by selecting her hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, as his final resting place. However, in a manner suitable of
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The Mitchell mansion in Milwaukee currently houses the Wisconsin Club.
Notes
1. William Manchester, American Caesar (New York: Little Brown and Company, 1978), 520. 2. Ibid, 521. 3.1. P. Alexander, "Chats with the Editor," Wisconsin Magazine of History 27, no. 3 {March 1944): 257-260. 4. Ibid, 259; H. Paul Jeffers, Billy Mitcliell: The Life, Times and Battles of America's Prophet of Air Power (St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2005), 21. 5. "The Wisconsin Club: A Communication and a Correction" Wisconsin Magazine of His tory 64, no. 3 (Spring 1981): 216. 6. Kenneth Ray Young, The General's General (Boulder, CO: West\iew Press, 1994), 6. 7. Ibid. 8. Robert Carroon, "Scotsmen in Old Milwaukee: 1810-1860," Milwaukee History, 10 (Win ter 1987): 127. 9. Dennis McCann, "3 Governors Held Office Within Weeks," Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, December 10, 1998, 7B. 10. Milwaukee County Historical Society, The MacArthurs of Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee County Historical Society, 1979), 5. 11. Young, The General's General, 26. 12. Note: Arthur MacArthur Jr. changed the spelling of the family surname after the Civil War. 13. Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences, (United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1964), 8. 14. Robert Carroon, "Arms and the Clans: Milwaukee Scots in the Civil War," Milwaukee History 25, September 1969: 115. 15. Alexander Mitchell, General Correspondence, 1862—1883, in Alexander and John L. Mitchell Papers, 1859—1906, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin, Box 1, Folder 1. 16. Young, The General's General, 148. 17. Jeffers, BiZ/yMiteiie;;, 25. 18. Young, The General's General, 163. 19. MacArthur, Reminiscences, 5. 20. Young, The General's General, 169. 21. James D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur Volume 1 1880-1941 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970), 65. 22. Jeffers, BfflyMiteiie;;, 35. 4^ 23. Manchester, American Caesar, 48. 24. The MacArthurs of Milwaukee, 28. 25. Ibid, 49. 26. Young, The General's General, 297. 27. Manchester, American Caesar, 69. 28. Milwaukee Blue Book, 1908-9 (Milwaukee: Wisconsin Elite Directory Company, 1909), 300. 29. The MacArthurs of Milwaukee, 13. 30. Jeffers, BiiiyMitcAcii, 108. 31. Burke Davis, The Billy Mitchell Affair (New York: Random House, 1967), 66. 32. Manchester, American Caesar, 136. 33. Isaac Don Levine, Mitcbelk Pioneer of Air Power (New York: Arno Press, 1973), 323-327. 34. MacArthur, Reminiscences, 85. 35. The MacArthurs of Milwaukee, 45. 36. Jeffers, BiiiyMitcAcii, 16.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeffrey J. McLean is an active-duty Navy Lieutenant and a native of Mequon, Wis consin. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2004 and earned a master's degree from Oxford University in 2006. Having earned his naval aviator "gold wings" in 2008, he flies F/A-18 Super Hor nets for Navy Strike Fighter Squadron 103, the Jolly Rogers, in Vir ginia Beach, Virginia. He has recently returned from deployment on the USS Eisenhower, participating in Operation Enduring Free dom in Afghanistan.
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HELENE TRATMAN - 1HOMAS WISCONSIN SONGCATCHE
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John Williams leads the congregation of Peniel Church in Pickett, Wisconsin, at a * Gymanfu Ganu, or Welsh songfest. \h\
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Fond du Lac Jail
In the morning you receive a dry loaf of bread That's hard as a stone and heavy as lead It's thrown from the ceiling down into your cell, Like coming from Heaven popped down into Hell.
CHORUS Oh, there's hard times in Tond du Lac jail, There's hard times, I say.
Your bed it is made of old rotten rugs. Get up in the morning all covered with bugs. And the bugs they will swear that unless you get bail. You're bound to go lousy in Fond du Lac jail."
—sung by Charles Robinson of Marion, Wisconsin, 1941
uring the summer of 1940, Helene Stratman-Thomas and recording technician Robert Draves hauled a D heavy recorder down Wisconsin's back roads in search of the state's folk music. The two covered thousands of miles, 4^ traveling from town to town and meeting with lumberjacks, sailors, miners, and immigrants to record music and stories never captured before or since on primitive green shellac discs. The trip marked the beginning of a six-year-long collecting project that would result in the preservation of nearly 800 per formances in more than twenty-five languages, including eleven American Indian languages. In addition to the sound recordings, the pair took more than eighty photographs of the artists, their instruments, and the buildings and landscapes in which they lived and performed. The project, known as the Wisconsin Folk Music Project, was a government-funded effort to record music from the state's diverse ethnic and regional population. And Stratman-Thomas was chosen as its executor. In the early 1940s, singers and musicians rooted in Amer ican Indian and European traditions as well as those immersed in the festivities of the lumber camps and small town life could be found in communities across the state. Wisconsin in the first part of the twentieth century had the greatest variety of American Indian cultures and languages east of the Mississippi, as well as an incredible concentration of non-Anglo Europeans. Electricity was coming to rural Wisconsin, however, so there was an urgency in collecting folk music. Bring a radio into a house, and people will soon stop singing their traditional songs or even become so entranced by popular music that they lose their own singing and playing style. WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:17 PM Page 30 -^
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In the years before World War II, state and federally spon Although she was not "the first, the most persistent, nor the sored folksong collecting flourished across the country. Evoca most prolific" collector of folk songs, Stratman-Thomas's work tively known as "song catchers," these fieldworkers labored for stood apart from her predecessors. At a time when most Amer organizations as diverse as the Farm Security Administration, the ican folk music collecting focused on English language and Works Progress Administration, and the Library of Congress. African-American songs, or on regionally specific works from Stratman-Thomas was not the first to seek out Wisconsin Cajuns, Hispanics, and various Indians, Stratman-Thomas folk music, however. Frances Densmore, who devoted her life recorded all kinds of musical expression, sung in many lan to the study of American Indian music across the United guages and played on many unique and homemade instru States, visited Chippewa communities in Minnesota and Wis ments. Besides songs, she also did something no other consin in the first decade of the twentieth century to study their songcatcher had done: she documented the working conditions music and transcribe it into traditional musical notation. In of jobs specific to Wisconsin, including the harsh conditions in 1919, Franz Rickaby tramped through the forests of the Upper logging camps and cranberry farms as well as the dangers of Midwest documenting the songs of lumberjacks, or shanty steamship travel. And she was open and accepting of all forms boys, as they were sometimes called. He published his findings, of folk music and storytelling.'' including lyrics and tunes gathered in Wisconsin, in Ballads Born in Dodgeville in 1896, Stratman-Thomas grew up and Songs of the Shanty-Boy in 1926. The songs of Kentuck- hearing the songs of her German grandfather, the Welsh ians transplanted to Wisconsin to work in the lumber industry hymns of a nearby church, and the Cornish songs of her neigh attracted Asher Treat and Sidney Robertson Cowell to north bors. Even so, her musical training was more classical, institu eastern Wisconsin in the 1930s. tional, and refined; she graduated with a BA and MA in music
Stratman-Thomas (right) converses with singer Donalda La Grandeur.
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Stratman-Thomas with several members of the Yuba Band, which played at dances, weddings and funerals
Cane violin made by Otto Rindlisbacher
VESTERHEIM NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM, DECORAH, lA
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Recording machine used by technician Robert Draves on Stratman- Box in which Stratman-Thomas kept blank discs to record performers Thomas's collecting trips. The machine is preserved at the Mills Music around the state. The jackets of the discs were used to record Library on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. performance notes. 4^
from the University of Wisconsin. In 1930, she joined the UW learned about the project, she found most people quite coop music faculty to teach music theory and to conduct the erative. The success of songcatchers depended on their ability women's choir. She later served as business manager for the to meet people in out-of-the-way places and to deal with them Pro Arte string quartet. on their own terms, openly and sympathetically.^ Stratman- In 1940, Professor Leland Goon launched Stratman- Thomas exhibited all of the warmth, self-confidence, and Thomas on a new trajectory. Goon asked her to head the fed humility necessary to make singers out of dentists and nearly erally funded Wisconsin Folk Music Project for the Library of anyone else she would meet. Congress. Despite her classical background, Stratman-Thomas Traveling around the state, Stratman-Thomas and Draves eagerly embraced the task, and that summer she headed out on found a Bohemian band in Kewaunee, playing music from the first of three major recording trips. handwritten manuscripts brought over by their parents and On one of her first stops in her hometown of Dodgeville in grandparents. They attended a Welsh singing festival known as August 1940, she and recording technician Draves visited the Gymanfa Ganu at Penial Church near Pickett. They stopped at dental office of Dr. Dan Wickham. Dr. Wickham had agreed a logging museum in Rhinelander where they met Leizime Bru- to sing "My Welsh Relation" in his Welsh brogue, a song that soe, a champion fiddler originally from Canada. Brusoe's play had circulated throughout Iowa County for years. But when ing was so good that Stratman-Thomas returned to record him they showed up to record, he had a patient in his chair. The again at the request of legendary folklorist Alan Lomax, head of patient, overhearing the conversation between her doctor and the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Stratman-Thomas, called out, "Go ahead, Dan, sing. I'm in A number of recordings were made in Madison, too, cap no hurry!" So Dr. Wickham put aside his dental tools and sang turing for posterity the musicians who traveled from sur with his patient as his audience. rounding communities to perform in Music Hall on the UW At first, Stratman-Thomas doubted her ability to influence campus. These performers included four Norwegian women people to sing. And a few people she encountered couldn't from McFarland who came toting their psalmodikons, a long, understand why songs sung around the hearth or in logging narrow, one-stringed instrument played with a bow. One of camps should be recorded for posterity. But once people the earliest of all Norwegian musical instruments, the
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Charlie Spencer was a native Kentuckian who moved to Crandon, Wisconsin, and recorded white spirituals for Stratman-Thomas. 4^
psalmodikon reinforced the single line of melody in Norwe After a second summer spent on the road in 1941, wartime gian hymns. restrictions on travel ended Stratman-Thomas's recording for After one summer spent recording, Stratman-Thomas came a time. During World War II, Stratman-Thomas gave lectures home changed by her experience. "We both thought we knew and played recordings in hopes that people might recall others our native state fairly well, but when we returned at the close songs or singers. Her files were bulging with prospects when a of our first summer's collecting with recordings of songs from Rockefeller Grant enabled her to hit the road again in 1946. the people of Wisconsin in more than twenty different lan One of the groups she specifically sought out on this leg of guages, we felt as though we had, for the first time in our lives, the trip were American Indian tribes, to augment the efforts really learned to know Wisconsin," she wrote. She also real made by Frances Densmore earlier in the century. Arriving in ized that many of the people she wished to record were getting Wisconsin Dells to record the Ho-Chunk, Stratman-Thomas old. If the songs were not collected soon, they would go to the met with Chief Yellow Thunder, who worried that future gen grave with the people who knew them. erations would not know the sound of their forefathers' tribal Temperamental equipment and unpredictable (read: music. Some Indians did not share Chief Yellow Thunder's human) performers made recording an adventure. Each disc concern, believing that the music only had significance when had only four and a half minutes of recording time, so attached to a ceremony rather than when sung into a recorder. singers and storytellers had little time to waste or make mis But, reasoned Stratman-Thomas, if "the ceremonial should takes. In many finished recordings, listeners can hear per pass into oblivion, its music should likewise be forgotten." formers forgetting the lyrics, and stray sounds such as After the collecting trips ended, Stratman-Thomas cuckoo clocks, barking dogs, and church bells punctuate the recounted her experiences on Wisconsin Public Radio and background. ~ gave lectures on folk music throughout the state. She continued Stratman-Thomas's gender also made for unpredictable to teach music theory and began writing a book about Wis recording. A few lumberjack tunes were so bawdy and lusty consin folk music, though she died in 1973 before it was com that the singers suggested she go wait in the car while her male pleted. In 2001, the Library of Congress released a CD of her assistant completed the recording. recordings entitled Folk Music from Wisconsin.
WINTER 2010 33 A violin maker in Dyckesville, Wisconsin, possibly Louis J. Robson, examines a plate for a violin in the sunlight in his workshop. 4^
Psalmodikon made by Otto Rindlisbacher.The psalmodikon, a traditional Scandinavian instrument, is played with a bow and has only one string.
VESTERHEIM NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM, DECORAH, lA
Although they are an important record of people and their ern musical region. ... There was almost an ideological expec music, Stratman-Thomas's recordings should not be mistaken tation that American' folk music would be kind of Anglo- for a comprehensive look at Wisconsin life in the 1940s. What American, maybe tempered a bit with African American they do suggest is different aspects of individual experience: music. It was just really remarkable that she was open to that stories of real and imagined people dealing with work, mar diversity."'^ riage, politics, disasters, love, war, revenge, and death. They The volume and variety of materials collected by Strat also show many ethnic groups in transition, adapting to their man-Thomas are a testimony to the human need to express new home while hanging on to songs that represent the last and preserve traditions, memories, and historical records. remnants of their cultural heritage—a heritage that many Between the lines of the songs and in the faces of those who feared was disappearing. performed are the legacies of people who lived at a time when As folklorist James P. Leary wrote of Stratman-Thomas, homemade song had the power to enrich and define lives and "She was the first one to provide a full portrait of a Midwest experiences. IMI
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Emil Boulanger of Dyckesville on August 31,1946. A fiddle player from a very early age, Boulanger played entirely by ear on a violin he made himself.
Helene Stratman-Thomas will be featured in the upcoming History of Recorded Sound exhibit at the UW—Madison Mills Music Library. The exhibit runs from November 1, 2010—May 30, 2011. You can also hear Helene Stratman-Thomas's recordings online as part of the Wisconsin Folksong Collection. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WiscFolkSong/
Notes
I.James P. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 19. 8. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore, 21. 2. "Wisconsin Folk Musings: James Leary," in Gabriel Miller, "Away to Wisconsin: From 9. Peters, ed.. Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, 9. Lumberjack Songs to Lithuanian Hymns," Mills Music Library Newsletter (2006), 10. Ibid, 25. 128.104.1.216/ncws/rclcascs/2007/2006StratmanThomas.pdf. 11. "Psalmodikons or Salmodikons—One-Stringed Norwegian Instrument," Sons of Nor 3. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore^ 19. way: Vennekretsen—Lodge No. 3-678, http://www.vennekretsen.com/Culture/Psalmodikon- 4."Wisconsin Folk Music Project History," Helene Stratman-Thomas Collection, Mills Music Salmodikon.html; Peters, ed., Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, 26. Library, http://music.library.wisc.edu/hst/hst_history; Quote from James P. Leary on Helene 12. Peters, cd., Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, 23. Stratman-Thomas Collection, Wisconsin Folk Music Project. 13. "Wisconsin Folk Music Project History." 5. Leary, Wisconsin Folklore, 19. 14. Peters, ed., Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin, 25. 6. "Helene Stratman-Thomas Biography," Helen Stratman-Thomas Collections, Mills Music 15. Ibid, 28. Library, http://music.library.wisc.edu/hst/hst_biography.htm. 16. Ibid, 29. 7. Harry B. Peters, ed., Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin: An Illustrated Compendium of Words 17. "Wisconsin Folk Musings: James Leary." and Music (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1977), 23.
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Bessie Gordon of Schofield, Wisconsin, plays the organ. Stratman-Thomas recorded songs by Gordon in August 1941.
Mr. and Mrs. James Hawl 36 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:18 PM Page 37 Albert Wachuta of Prairie du Chien poses with his accordion August 19,1941. Wachuta sang Bohemian songs, accompanying himself on the accordion. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Erika Janik is the author of/\ Short History of Wisconsin as well as Odd Wisconsin, both published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. She has written several articles for the Wisconsin Magazine of History on topics ranging from women on the radio to food conservation during World War I. She holds master's degrees in American his tory and journalism from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and is a producer at Wisconsin Public Radio. Originally from Redmond, Washington, she now lives in Madison. WINTER 2010 37 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:18 PM Page 38 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:18 PM Page 39 -^ T *: "Nothing • %!^.T^ ^more than a tradition' •^>'"'^'':lvK JOHN NELLIGAN IN THE WISCONSIN PINERY BY JOHN ZIMM J^liiiw? ) I:t- n the 1800s, armies of woodsmen descended on the L Wisconsin forest to cut down trees. They turned rivers into highways that carried billions of board t. I r* feet of logs to sawmills to be turned into lumber, then i moved west when the trees became too sparse or logs too difficult to extract from the forest. The men who did this work are often seen not as individual human beings, but as an elusive, quasi-mythical horde of celebrated, larger- than-life, hard-working, and hard-living nomads. Although stereotyped as transients uprooted from the social net works that bound most to home, lumberjacks were actu ally a diverse group of men. Some spent their winters working in the woods to earn money for a gloriously debauched spree in the spring, but many, like John Nel ligan, worked diligently in the woods, spent their money judiciously, raised families, and helped build towns throughout the northern part of the state. Of the thou sands of men who worked in the Wisconsin pinery, only a few left written records of their time in the forest. Nel ligan was one who took the time to record his life story. Wisconsin lumberjacks pose on and around a massive load of logs headed for the sawmill. For several years in the late nineteenth century, Wisconsin led the nation in timber harvesting. WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 40 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Wagon used to prepare hot meals in the woods for lumberjacks. John Building where Joseph Rule was shot shortly after Nelligan noted that dinner in the woods was called the"flaggin's." Nelligan's arrival in Oconto John Nelligan was a New Brunswick native who came to foot to find a job. He walked over forty miles through the Wisconsin in 1871 at the age of nineteen, "a man in all but my sparsely populated Canadian countryside before coming across years."' By that time he already had four years of experience a small logging operation in need of a cook. Although he had in lumber camps in New Brunswick, Maine, and Pennsylva no experience cooking, Nelligan was hired, later reflecting that nia. When he finally left the lumber business in the early twen "the ludicrous failures which resulted from my initial culinary tieth century, he had worked in every phase of the industry efforts can well be imagined." Before long, Nelhgan got the 4^ except for the sawmill. With his wide array of experience in the hang of things and could prepare three large meals a day for phases of logging, Nelligan was able to comment with author lumbermen with "prodigious appetites." NelHgan worked with ity on the unique Kfestyle he and his fellow lumberjacks enjoyed the crew for the rest of the winter, and then again the next fall in the nineteenth century, while also painting a vivid picture of when the logging season began again. The next year he ranged the social atmosphere in the Great Lakes pinery. Nelligan's farther afield, going to work in the Maine woods where he memoirs, published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History in remained for only one season, venturing to Pennsylvania the three installments in 1929 and 1930, provide a useful dose of next winter. In the spring of 1871, John Nelligan began to look reality about the often-mythologized lumberjack and his life in even further west, where lumbering was entering its heyday in the woods. the Midwest. Nelligan's sister was living in Oconto and was married to William Bransfield, part owner of a logging com Early Life in New Brunswick pany, which provided further incentive for the move, —not that John Nelligan was born March 31, 1852, near Escuminac, much incentive was needed. New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, the son of Irish immi In the 1870s, Wisconsin offered, in Nelligan's words, "the grants Patrick and Johanna Nelligan. When he was only two greatest field of opportunity for a young fellow who had cho years old his father drowned, leaving Nelligan, his mother, sen logging as the business he was to follow."^ As America grew three sisters, and a younger brother to run their small farm. and expanded into the Great Plains, there arose a demand for Forty acres, a herd of two dozen sheep, and half a dozen cows lumber which local sources could not supply, creating a need provided most of what the family needed to live, supplemented for the lumber from the pine forest which grew over the north by the wild game they hunted and the berries they picked in ern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. the brief summertime. The family also grew wheat and pota Serendipitously, this forest was laced through with various toes, while a few hogs and a flock of chickens enhanced the major rivers, not to mention the smaller streams and tributar family menu with pork, eggs, and "the occasional feast of fowl ies, which proved invaluable in removing logs from the forest. meat." Nelligan occasionally went to school, but education The exhaustion of pine in the eastern forests, coupled with did not play a big part in his early life. aggressive advertising campaigns by Wisconsin mill owners, In the fall of 1867, when he was only fifteen years old, Nel helped draw a steady stream of eastern lumbermen to Wis ligan felt that he was no longer needed at home and set out on consin throughout the middle of the nineteenth century. In 40 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 41 -^ Sawmill operated by the Holt & Balcom Company, which was one of Nelligan's employers in Wisconsin 1853, Wisconsin lumbermen delivered 200 million board feet tury. Lumber with which to build up a mechanical civilization. of logs to sawmills; twenty years later the yield had increased We heard only that demand and we supplied it.""^ to 1.25 billion board feet.' In 1892, over four billion board feet were harvested, the greatest yield produced in Wisconsin, after "From Cone to Consumer" which the industry began a relentless decKne and period of John NeUigan arrived in Oconto on April 10, 1871. Oconto transition. in 1871 was, in Nelligan's words, "as typical a lumbering town Already in the 1870s some were forecasting the imminent as you could ever have encountered. Plank sidewalks, punc exhaustion of the midwestern forests. Conservation and selec tured and chipped by the calked boots of rivermen, lined the tive logging were then unknown or unpracticed. Destruction by muddy streets, and behind the sidewalks stood the mercantile fires was a nearly annual event, destroying a great deal of forest establishments of the booming little city, most of them saloons acreage before lumberjacks even had a chance to put ax or saw engaged in the lucrative business of extracting the 'filthy lucre' to trunk. In October 1871, the Augusta, Maine Eastern Argus from the 'two-way' pockets of spendthrift lumberjacks."'' The lamented: "Vast in extent as are the forests of Minnesota, Wis streets were filled with lumberjacks, "those young giants of the consin and Michigan, at the present rate of demand for building North," as Nelligan called them, adding: "They were strong material to supply the necessities of our increasing population, it and wild in both body and spirit, with the careless masculine will be but a few years before they are exhausted. Even now . . . beauty of men who live free lives in the open air. They seemed we are beginning to have to look to the shores of the Pacific for the finest specimens of manhood I had ever seen."'^ the means to supply this great necessity... We have been far too John Nelligan remembered Oconto as a rough place. The extravagant with our timber."^ As Nelligan himself later wrote, city had the trappings of comfort, with its stores and neat little "We heard only the demand for lumber, more lumber, and bet houses, but there were times when brutality shattered all pre ter lumber. Lumber with which to build houses and schools and tensions to order. Only months after Nelligan's arrival, the churches and industrial plants. Lumber with which to feed the town was in an uproar over the accidental shooting of one lusty awakening America of the last half of the nineteenth cen Joseph Rule. Trouble began when a "gang of roughnecks" WINTER 2010 41 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 42 showed up at a Sunday night dance "with mischief in their manner." An armed bouncer was present who was supposed to keep the peace. When the roughnecks started making trou ble the bouncer aimed his revolver at them and fired, inad vertently hitting and eventually killing Joseph Rule, an innocent bystander. The bouncer was taken into custody for his own protection and housed in the local jail. Unhappily for the bouncer, a mob was aroused which proceeded to knock down the door of the jail. The bouncer was dragged from his cell, pulled across a bridge and to a tree, where he was prompdy lynched.'* Oconto was shaken by the incident, which the Janesville Daily Gazette called: "a scene of shocking bar barity . . . that would put to the blush a band of cannibals." ~' Nelligan noted the irony that a courthouse was erected over the site of the lynching, wondering "whether [the courthouse] is a symbol of justice rising over injustice, or whether it is built upon foundations of injustice?"'^ In May 1871, after only a month in Oconto, Nelligan was hired by his brother-in-law William Bransfield to work on the north branch of the Oconto River. The process of harvesting An Auburndale, Wisconsin, logging crew in front of the simple log pine in the nineteenth century followed a fairly regular sched buildings that formed their camp ule dictated by the weather, and while not unheard of, cutting timber in the summer was not entirely common. After the scouts or "land lookers" had located the pine and contracts Early on in his lumbering career, John Nelligan made it were made to cut and deliver the lumber to sawmills, a team of a point to stay on with the crew for the spring drive. The men would go into the woods, usually in the fall, and make a drive was, in Nelligan's own words, "a drama greater even 4^ camp. Buildings were constructed, often from the trees the than that in which the giant pines were felled and dis crew was clearing around camp, and roads were plotted and sected."'^ It was certainly the most dangerous, physically- cleared. With camp made, the crew left until winter arrived, demanding facet of lumbering. Lumbermen relied on the when the majority of the timber cutting took place. Once trees rivers and streams to move the well-floating pine to sawmill. were felled and the branches cut off, the logs were cut to length Preparations were made beforehand; obstructions were and dragged along the skid road to the riverbank or stream, removed from the streams, and dams were built to hold back where they were piled until spring when drivers would float the water from the melting snow. The logging camps were them downstream to sawmill. cleared out aside from a select few, "the pick of the camps, In the fall, Nelligan was hired to watch over a team of oxen. lumberjacks of unusual strength, agility, daring, and hardi It was an uneventful job, alone in the woods just making sure hood." ' For the next several days, these drivers or rivermen the oxen did not wander off or get shot, until October 8, 1871. would be sleep-deprived, denied regular meals, soaked to the That morning, Nelligan hiked to the nearest town, twelve miles skin, and needing to be constantly vigilant as "the slightest away, to replenish his food supplies. On the return trip Nelli misstep or miscalculation might send them relentlessly to gan's way was blocked by fire, the beginnings of the Peshtigo their deaths."^° With only peaveys or pike poles and spiked- Fire that would rage throughout the night and claim over one soled boots to aid them, the rivermen rode the logs down thousand lives. NelHgan changed direction and ended up at a river, aiming to keep the logs moving at all times. Should a farm owned by lumberman Anson Eldred. As the flames logjam occur, the rivermen had to break it up, usually with approached the farm, the farm's manager became "hysterical only their pike poles and brute force. with fear and sobbing out his belief that the place would be By the time he reached his early twenties Nelligan was a burned to the ground." Nelligan got to work hitching a team skilled lumberjack, land looker, and riverman. He was also of oxen and forcing the hysterical manager to help. The two remarkably restrained in his habits. Nelligan neither smoked hauled barrels of water throughout the night, fighting back the nor drank, but was a dedicated lumberjack. When the spring vanguard of flames and saving the farm buildings. Nelligan drive was complete most of the men returned to their farms or spent that winter as a "swamper," working with a crew rescu spent their wages cavorting in the nearest settlement; in the ing partially burnt trees before they could be infested by worms summer of 1874 Nelligan began attending classes at a business and ruined. college in Green Bay. Nelligan later explained: "[A]s I did not 42 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 43 This odd-looking sleigh held a 500-gallon water tank that was used to ice roads through the forest. A stove in the front of the tank kept the water inside from freezing. look favorably, as do most lumberjacks, on an extended period one, however lumbering was something that was endured for of carousing and loafing, I thought it was an opportune time to a finite season and was left behind for other pursuits when the improve my sadly neglected education and learn . .. about the snow melted. Unlike the workers in a Neenah paper mill or 4^ methods of transacting business." Milwaukee foundry—workers who had a long-term, day-to-day concern over their working conditions—the lion's share of lum Woods Boss and Businessman berjacks returned to their lives on the farm or milled around In 1877,John NeUigan became a foreman, or "woods boss," the towns and villages of northern Wisconsin spending their with the firm of Pendleton and Sargent. To the woods boss fell winter's wages once the work was done in the spring. the responsibility of making sure everything ran smoothly in Although union organizing did not take hold on the indus the camp, whether it be devising solutions to problems with try as forcefully as other industrial enterprises, there were times the tree harvest, or managing a sometimes unruly workforce. when groups of lumberjacks objected vigorously to what they Nelligan reflected: "I was then only twenty-five years old— felt was unfair treatment from their employers. When faced rather young for a foreman—but I had had sufficient experi with unruly work crews, NelHgan was not against resorting to ence and was tall and heavy enough to inspire a healthy respect fisticuffs to restore order. One winter, a cook in one of Nelli among the men." John Nelligan's size and physical strength gan's lumber camps decided to raise trouble by telling workers were key to his success. Nelligan stood over six feet tall, and his that other crews in the area were making twice what Nelligan's years working in the woods had given him above-average outfit was paying. The crew promptly left camp and stormed strength. Labor relations in the pinery were not governed by into the town of Metropolitan, Michigan, where Nelligan and statutes or union-negotiated contracts; they were rather an ad his business partner Larry Flannigan kept their oflices. There hoc amalgam of expectations enforced by peer pressure and, the lumberjacks got drunk and threatened to tear down the when necessary, physical strength. olfices and beat the men in charge. Nelligan and Flannigan, Although the men worked in grueling conditions, they who happened to be in Escanaba at the time, took the first rarely rose up as a group to protest. As historian Robert F. Fries train back to Metropolitan, arriving at the offices around noon noted: "[TJhe lumber industry was ... an island of industrial to find the jacks still "drunk and boisterous."^^ Nelligan ism in the broad sea of the frontier," which imbued lumber punched in the chin the first lumberjack he saw, sending the jacks with "the frontier psychology of optimism and a sense of man down a flight of stairs. Nelligan and Flannigan then set unlimited opportunity." For some, working in the woods pro about beating up the entire crew of unruly lumberjacks, aside vided supplemental income, while for others it provided from a few of the men who "ran a bit too fast for us." Nelli income to finance an alcohol-soaked summer. For nearly every gan and Flannigan paid the men their wages and sent them on WINTER 2010 43 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 44 WHI IMAGE ID 77337 Marathon County logging crew in a snowy wood 4^ their way. They had no problem replacing the crew as "men of lumberyards, furniture makers, and others who needed pine were plentiful that season and work was not."^' for profits. When the two weren't playing rough practical jokes Another spring, during a drive on the Fence River in Michi on one another (Flannigan once set NelHgan's bed on fire—while gan, Nelligan's crew of rivermen was not served a customary Nelligan was fast asleep in it), the two ran a tight, profitable busi 9 a.m. lunch, which prompted twenty of the men to quit. ness that made them both fairly wealthy. After taking a contract After receiving their checks and finding that their wages had to cut or deliver lumber, the men hired their foremen and crews, been reduced 25 cents a day because the drive was not yet com often personally managed their camps, working side by side with plete, the twenty rivermen stormed into NelHgan's office with the lumberjacks on their payroll. Nelligan remembered, "All in rope in hand, intending to hang him if the amount of their aU, Flannigan and I made a good working team and an uproar checks was not raised. Unfazed by the appearance of the mob, ious brace of partners," continuing: "We stood back of our fore Nelligan grabbed a Winchester rifle and told the men: man in everything, kept good order in the camps, furnished the "There'll be one of the largest surprise parties in hell the devil best of board, and paid the best of wages." ever heard of ... if any of you dare to come through that door."^^ Nelligan's bluff worked, and the men left. He appar What the Woods School Teaches ently had no intention of shooting anyone, or so he claimed While John Nelligan described lumberjacks as "men who after the fact, reflecting: "A good hearty bluff backed by a seri unmercifully bent and broke the wilderness to their wishes," it ous looking gun was enough to make them forget their . . . is equally true that the wilderness bent and broke the lumber intentions." Having sent the rivermen away successfully, Nel jack in return. The men worked not only one of the most ligan summoned them back to his office, at which point he physically demanding jobs available, they labored under such raised their checks and had the cook make them lunch. The unique, transformative conditions that it was not possible for rivermen left in the best of spirits. the men to inhabit the lifestyle for long without changing as In the fall of 1886, John Nelligan formed a business partner weH. The lumberjack's life was molded and formed by the very ship with the aforementioned Larry Flannigan. NelHgan and woods he was cutting down, teaching him to deal with diffi Flannigan took contracts to deliver logs to sawmiUs for a variety cult, isolated working conditions and changing his attitudes 44 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 45 Tfi e I Nursery of Good Will Farm in Houghton, Michigan. Good Will Farm began as a orphanage in 1899, giving shelter and care to underprivileged children, including those that sometimes resulted from the lumberjacks'carousing. 4^ towards women and family, who were usually far away from wrote of a Marinette saloonkeeper named Jack Brennan who where the men worked. paid men to entice lumberjacks to his saloon and annually pre Lumberjacks had to become comfortable witnessing death, pared for lumberjacks leaving the woods by sporting "a spofless especially when on the spring drive. As Nelligan wrote, white apron . . . and a jovial smile of good-fellowship wreathing "Death constantly walked by the side of men on the river and his sinful old features." In Brennan's saloon, the "woods-weary made its frequent appearance in the most casual and unex lumberjacks" were bombarded with wine, women, and song, pected ways. It was so casual it was treated almost callously." and the "lumberjack was royally entertained according to his Watching a man get caught in the current or go sailing over a own tastes until his last doUar had been extracted from him and dam didn't stop the work, although the body was recovered if then he was tossed aside like a dirty shirt. Men ofjack Brennan's possible. Those left were more careful about their work, but stamp knew that the gutter was the only proper place for a pen the drive had to go on. Nelligan told the story of a man named niless lumberjack." All too often, lumberjacks came to finan Bell who decided to ride a pine log down a fast-moving river cial and personal ruin in this way. to the scene of a jam that the crew had to break up. Peavey As a woods boss and businessman, Nelligan did what he in hand, Bell jumped on a log and fioated downstream. Near- could to keep liquor out of the camps. However, it was not ing the end of the jam, Bell's log happened to hit a rock, always possible to keep the camp free of alcohol. One spring throwing Bell into the current. The man was swept under when NelHgan was driving timber with a crew on the Nett neath the logs and drowned, his body recovered only after the River in Michigan, a freight train with a boxcar full of whiskey jam was broken up. wrecked on the Nett River bridge. The men working for Nel Working under demanding and often dangerous conditions Hgan were not long in discovering this "riverman's dream," and helped the men cultivate an unquenchable thirst for liquor. More soon the liquor "magically disappeared" as the rivermen "hid than a few lumberjacks were aU too willing to comply with the it aU throughout the woods."^' The rivermen, meanwhile, got wishes of the saloon keepers in the towns and villages circumja sufficiently drunk to hold up the drive for a full week. On cent to the Wisconsin pinery who did prodigious business sepa another drive, Nelligan and his crew of rivermen had to wait for rating lumberjacks from their hard-earned money. Nelligan a dam to raise the water level high enough to drive logs, and in WINTER 2010 45 WHI IMAGE ID 31453 A crew of river drivers balances on logs with pike poles and peaveys. the meantime the men decided to wander off to the nearest vil as a sheep buyer and the greenhorn was rolled up tightly in a lage "to get gloriously and uproariously drunk." The men heavy blanket and became the 'sheep.' He was carried by two finally sobered up and drifted back to camp, just in time for a other jacks. The farmer and the sheep buyer would stage an 4^ local saloonkeeper to get them drunk again. It was only through argument over the weight of the sheep. To determine its real threats, oaths, and "picturesque profanity" than NelHgan was weight they would let it down repeatedly on the 'scales.' The able to keep the men sober for the balance of the drive."^^ 'scales' was a sharply pointed stick and the 'sheep' was always During the winter when the men were busy working before thrown onto the scales in such a way that the point of the stick the rising of the sun and after its setting, there wasn't a lot of came into violent contact with the tender, rear central portion time for drunkenness or other tomfoolery. The few hours they of his anatomy. This was very uncomfortable for the green had to themselves before retiring to their beds at night were horn and very laughable for the rest of the crew." usually spent reading, talking, or, if there was a musician in the Rough as they were, Nelligan maintained that normally camp, Hstening to a few songs and maybe even singing along to lumberjacks were chivalrous to women, not allowing an inde rowdy ballads. Far away from towns or cities where there was cent word to be spoken about a decent woman. Every winter, entertainment to be had, the lumberjacks themselves had to Catholic nuns came around to the camps collecting money to be the entertainment. Nelligan wrote that one favorite pastime support the orphanages they ran. Nelligan noted that lumber was telling tales of Paul Bunyan, although this was an attempt jacks treated the sisters well because: "[I]t was through the by Nelligan's collaborator, Charles M. Sheridan, to include humanitarian efforts of these women, [the lumberjacks] were popular folklore in the memoirs. Most likely, the men did tell aware, that their iUegitimate offspring, the unintended results "impossible tales ... with the utmost gravity," which the green of their wild revels, were reared in decency and given a chance horns would listen to "with open mouths until they came to a in the world." One time, while the crew was eating break realization of their absurdity." fast, a cook "passed some insinuating remarks" about a group Initiation into camp for new lumberjacks or "greenhorns" of women who visited their camp to raise donations for an was a tradition that not only tested the creduHty of new work orphanage in Houghton, Michigan. The lumberjacks finished ers, but also gave seasoned lumberjacks the opportunity to their breakfast in silence, at which point "they rose in a body embellish the traits valued in the pinery such as strength, and went after the cook." Although they wanted to hang the resourcefulness, and the ability to withstand discomfort or cook, he was a faster runner than the others and escaped. Nel pain. One trick played on the inexperienced was called the ligan summed up the experience: "[LJumberjacks were a sheep game. As Nelligan remembered it: "One of the jacks chivalrous breed and the man who dared to be careless in his played the part of a farmer who owned a sheep, another posed comments on respectable women was taking chances."** 46 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:19 PM Page 47 n'.---v', '•,;A - J:«i*^ Several lumberjacks visit a cook's tent, called a wanigan. Although Nelligan himself was married and had children, he found that for some lumberjacks, having a wife or a girlfriend made working in the camps difficult. Nelligan related the story of a lovesick lumberjack who faked an injury in order to get out of camp and see his sweetheart. Flannigan made a bed in a wagon, hitched up a team of horses, and loaded up the sup posedly injured man to take him to a train station. Nelligan then threw a heavy pick handle in the wagon and told Flannigan to hit the lumberjack in the back of the head with the pick handle before they reached the station, continuing, "I'll . . . wire the undertaker at Ishpeming to come down on the evening train with a casket, a black suit of clothes, a white shirt and a black Larry Flannigan, John tie." ' The poor sap protested, "I ain't hurt that bad, boys!" to Nelligan's longtime business partner. Nelligan which NelHgan replied: "You shut up . . . We'U send you home described Flannigan as to your folks clean and well-dressed." Before they could leave "one of the most lovable for the station, the lumberjack got up and "bolted as much as and at the same time two or three ordinary men." They bought the man a ticket for devilish rogues that ever Green Bay and they never heard from him again. NeUigan con walked the paths of God's cluded, "Whiskey is bad enough, Lord knows, but when a lum John Nelligan later in life green footstool." berjack falls in love, it beats whiskey all haUow." Last Years and previously ignored species like hemlock, cedar, and hard By the turn of the twentieth century, lumber in Wisconsin woods like oak and maple. Many Wisconsin lumbermen was getting scarcer and harder to extract from the forest. Wis began to look west and south for new timberlands; John NelH consin still led all states in the production of pine lumber in gan himself made a trip to Mexico in 1912 to investigate tim- 1900, but the prime trees had already been extracted, and the berland, although he did not mention in his memoirs what, if yearly cut had diminished every year since a high of 4 billion anything, came of the trip.' board feet in 1892. Already in the late 1800s, lumbermen NelHgan apparently left the lumber business on the eve of started cutting lower grade trees, including smaUer pine trees the First World War, although he recorded no exact year in his WINTER 2010 47 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:20 PM Page 48 Wives and children of the lumberjacks in this Aburndale, Wisconsin, logging camp pay a Sunday visit. In the early twentieth century, new technologies were being used to harvest logs from the forest remnants. A steam handler hauls logs in this 4^ photograph from January 6, 1918. Beside the load sits a rutter, then still used to make roads in the forest, while the foreman's sleigh is parked in the foreground. memoirs.'' Nelligan and his wife settled into an apartment in and lumbering," and had the manuscript pubHshed in the Wis Milwaukee, where he kept busy visiting friends and reading. consin Magazine of History in three installments beginning in Nelligan toyed with the idea of writing out his life story, but the faU of 1929. felt he needed the help of a professional writer to do so. In John Nelligan died in January 1937, only three months shy 1926, Nelligan read a story in Columbia Magazine titled of his eighty-fifth birthday. By this time lumbering had become "Kings of the White Water," and decided that the author, a smaller-scale business in Wisconsin. Lumber companies had Charles M. Sheridan of Washburn, would be the right man to already started implementing the sustainable practices such as help. Nelligan traveled to Washburn in November 1926 and reforestation and selective cutting-measures that have helped left some notes with Sheridan, who later traveled to Milwaukee the state retain a healthy logging industry to this day. Gone to spend a few days interviewing NelHgan to round out the nar were the men who "unmercifully bent and broke the wilder rative. Finally, in April 1929, the manuscript was sent to Joseph ness to their wishes," men who NelHgan described as "Hard- Schafer, superintendent of the Wisconsin Historical Society. living, hard-drinking, hard-fighting, blasphemous pioneers Schafer called Nelligan's memoirs "an exceptionally compre who have gone the way of our other typically American pio hensive addition to our knowledge of the processes of logging neers . . . and are now nothing more than a tradition. "52 m 48 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:20 PM Page 49 By the time Nelligan published his memoirs in 1929, the old ways of logging had become fodder for folklore and folk art such as this painting by Wisconsin Artist Carl Arneson, who as a young man worked in the logging camps of Knapp, Stout & Company in northwestern Wisconsin. Notes 4^ I.John Nelligan, The Life of a Lumberman {St. Cloud, MN: The North Star Press, 1969), 35. 39. Ibid. Hereafter simply Nelligan. 40. Joseph Schafer notes in the introduction to NeUigan's memoirs that NeUigan: "had hardly 2. Nelligan, 15. so much as heard of the redoubtable Paul or of his blue ox. Babe." Nelligan, 10. 3. Nelligan, 20. 41. Nelligan, 127. 4. Ibid. 42. Nelligan, 125-126. 5. NeUigan, 35. 43. Nelligan, 130. 6. This paragraph based on Robert F. Fries, Empire in Pine (Madison; State Historical Soci 44. Ibid.' ety of Wisconsin, 1951), pp. 4-7, 239-241. 45. Nelligan, 111. 7. Fries, 239. 46. Nelligan, 111-112. 8. Ibid. 47. Nelligan, 112. 9. Augusta (Maine) Eastern Argus, October 19, 1871, p.2. 48. Fries, 240, 239. 10. Nelligan, 29-30. 49. Fries, 240-241. 11. Nelligan, 37. 50. Nelligan, 195. 12. Ibid. 51. AntigoJournal, October 31, 1931. 13. Nelligan, 38-39. 52. Nelligan, 135. 14. Nelligan, 40-41. See ahoJanesville Daily Gazeffe, June 5 and 7, 1871, and Milwaukee Weekly Wisconsin, June 7, 1871, for reaction to the lynching in Oconto. iD.Janesville Daily Gazette, June 5, 1871, p. 1. 16. NeUigan, 40. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 17. Nelligan, 42. 18. NeUigan, 133. John Zimm received a BA in history from 19. Nelligan, 134. 20. Ibid." — ^, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and 21. Nelligan, 53. h , has worked for the Wisconsin Historical 22. Nelligan, 73. 23. Fries, 211. • Society Press since 2002. His previous arti- 24. Nelligan, 113. cles for the Wisconsin Magazine of History 25. Nelligan, 114. 26. Ibid." ^L include: "On to Montezuma's Halls: The 27. Ibid. i^ • Story of Alexander Conze," published in 28. Nelligan, 161. 29. Nelligan, 162. spring 2007, and "Wisconsin's Historic Windmills," which appeared 30. Nelligan, 162. in the spring 2009 issue. He has also written a biography of John 31. Nelligan, 104, 114. 32. Nelligan, 202. Nelligan for young readers, which will be published as part of the 33. Nelligan, 143. Wisconsin Historical Society Press Badger Biographies series. John 34. Nelligan, 142. 35. Nelligan, 59. lives in Waunakee with his wife, Nicole, and son, Danny. 36. Nelligan, 59-60. 37. Nelligan, 141. 38. Nelligan, 139. WINTER 2010 49 WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:20 PM Page 50 The following is excerpted from Barns of Wisconsin, by Jerry Apps, with photographs by Steve Apps, recently published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. ur neighbors began describing the old barn as an eyesore. The barn wasn't old—for a barn. It was Obuilt in 1910. But it looked old, like a man who is wrinkled and bent and clearly in the autumn of his life. Each year the barn leaned a bit more to the south, toward a rather sturdy combination granary, chicken house, and wagon shed that stood a few feet from it. The barn boards had never been painted, and the wood had weathered to several shades of gray. I could feel the wood grains standing out when I ran a finger slowly across the boards. My wife and I discussed the old barn at some length shortly after we'd acquired the central-Wisconsin property where it stood. We talked about straightening and repairing it, hoping to preserve its basic beauty. But everyone we con sulted said it was no use even to try; the building was too far gone. With considerable reluctance and much sadness we finally decided the barn had to come down. Our barn had not been built well. Its framing materials— primarily two-by-fours, two-by-sixes, and a few two-by- eights—had been too Hght, and over the years the windstorms had taken their toU. With each year's storms, the barn leaned 4^ a bit more. The farmer who'd owned the place before we acquired it had tried to brace it with cedar fence posts. But the posts hadn't helped. During the last years he owned the barn, the farmer was afraid to keep his livestock in it, so the barn stood empty. It wasn't completely empty, though, for pigeons continued to roost in the haymow, field mice found homes in an abandoned straw pile in one corner, and barn swallows lived comfortably in their mud-and-straw nests tucked up against the ceiHng of the stable. By the end of the summer, the barn was down. All that remained was the concrete foundation—it was as sturdy as the day it was poured—and a pile of boards and framing materials. During the process of demolishing that old barn I came to respect its builders. Though they had made some serious errors, the barn was nevertheless no smaU task to raze. I've known barns for a long time. Born and raised on a central-Wisconsin dairy farm, I spent many hours of my growing-up years in our barn. In winter, after weeks of cold and snowy weather, I looked forward to the days when we could turn the cattle out into the barnyard to romp in the snow Hke yearHngs. How fresh and clean the stable smeUed when we once more brought them into the barn and locked their necks into the stanchions. We had carried forkfuls of fresh straw from the dwindling strawstack out back of the barn and had bedded their stalls. And we'd piled alfalfa hay high in front of them, from the haymows in the upper barn. wisconsinhistory.org ^ WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:49 AM Page 51 During the most intense cold, frost had accumulated on the This small old barn is leaning and will soon collapse, leaving behind a barn windows until I could scrape it off by the handful. Warm silo to mark its memory. Columbia County, Ziehmke Road. days in late winter encouraged the frost on the windows to melt 4^ and drip. The sun once more poured through the windows, reflecting the dust particles from the hay. A few weeks later, when In 1966this was what remained ofthe farmstead on our farm. The old barn was falling down; the house had burned in 1959. Our daughter, the snow had melted and the green grass appeared on the south Susan, is in the foreground. side of the pasture hills, the cows were turned out during the day and confined to the stable only during the cold spring nights. In these early spring days, when we were busy with the planting, we worried about windstorms, which are most preva lent in the Midwest in spring. Unfortunately, this was also the time when barns were most vulnerable, for the haymows were empty. On a windy day in spring I'd crawl up to the peak of our barn, look out over the countryside, and see clouds of dust rolling across the freshly tilled fields. I could feel the wind shake the barn and hear the oak timbers protest loudly as they squeaked and snapped with each gust. My father knew, and I knew, too, that a tornado could easily destroy our barn, tear off its roof, and twist its timbers into a pile of useless rubble. I also knew a strong straight wind, the kind we often got in the spring, could push our barn off its foundation and create havoc. I knew this because it had happened one day in May, collapsing our barn wall and killing several head of livestock. By late June we started filling the barn with hay. The McCormick mower chattered around the hayfield, slicing off the stems of clover, alfalfa, and timothy. After the hay had a day or so to dry, my father raked it with our high-wheeled dump rake, and my brothers and I piled the hay into bunches to dry even more. When the hay was just right, and the WINTER 2010 51 WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:49 AM Page 52 -^ the field to gather another wagonload of hay. This procedure continued, day after day, until the hay fields were bare and the mows were piled full to the hayfork track. On a rainy day in summer, after the morning chores were finished, my father, my brothers, and I often crawled up the wooden ladder to the haymow and sprawled on the fresh hay to talk and rest and listen to the raindrops patter on the wood-shingled roof. In dry weather I could see sunlight shining through the shingles in many places, and I always won dered why the roof didn't leak. But once the rain started, the cedar shingles swelled In winter the old dairy barns were warm and cozy, with thick frost on the stable windows and and filled the cracks. corn silage, alfalfa hay, oat straw, and cow manure smells combining to create a pleasant, Soon after the barn was filled with hay, earthy experience. Dodge County. the oat crop was cut, shocked, and threshed. The oat bins in the granary were weather sunny and warm, we hitched the team to the hay filled—feed for the cows in winter. A huge strawstack once wagon and started hauHng hay to the barn. Slowly the steel- more stood behind the barn—bedding for the many months wheeled wagon creaked around the field as we piled the hay when the cows had to remain inside. higher and higher until we couldn't fork on another bunch. In September, if the rains had come at the right time and When we arrived at the barn, my father slowly steered the team the sun had shone long and hot, part of the corn crop was and wagon up the incline onto the barn's threshing floor. When ready to put in the silo—more winter feed for the cows. The the wagon was directly under the hayfork, he yelled, "Whoa!" silo, constructed of redwood staves standing vertically on a 4^ Meanwhile, I hitched a third horse to the rope. fieldstone wall, stood a few feet east of the barn. The silo was My father grabbed the slender trip rope and began to pull. connected to the barn by a silo room, a small structure large The hayfork moved along its track in the peak of the barn, enough to hold silage to feed the dairy herd twice, morning tripped when it arrived directly above the wagon, and settled and evening. Once the cows came into the barn for the winter, onto the load of hay. My father took the heavy, two-tined fork— silage had to be forked down from the silo once each day until it was about three feet long—and thrust it deep into the hay the cows could be turned out to pasture the following spring or before setting the trip mechanism. until the silage had been consumed. Too often the silo was "Take 'er up," he called when everything was ready. empty several weeks before the pasture grass had grown tall I clucked to Dick, the black horse hitched to the hayfork enough for grazing. Then the cows had only hay to eat. rope, and the rope tightened. Slowly the forkful of hay lifted UsuaUy one day in October the dark gray storm clouds rolled from the wagon as the hayfork rope moved through the series in from the west, a drizzly rain commenced to fall, and the cows of pulleys that connected the horse to the hayfork thrust into were kept in overnight. Forkfuls of fresh straw were carried into the hay. The wooden pulleys creaked and protested as the the barn, and the cows were locked into their stanchions. When mound of hay lifted from the wagon and rose to the hayfork we went out to the barn for milking that evening, we were track fastened just under the barn roof greeted with a strange combination of smells: wet cow, fresh I heard a clunk when the hayfork hit the track and slid along straw, and warm, foamy milk. The cold autumn rain splashed it over the mow. When the hay was midway over the mow, my against the barn windows and ran down in Httle rivulets. But it father pulled the trip rope, and a cloud of dust and leaves filled was comfortable in the barn. A kerosene lantern hung on a nail the air as the hay dropped with a whoosh. "Whoa!" I yelled to above the milk cans; another lantern hung behind the cows at Dick when the rope went slack. I turned the horse around and the far end ofthe barn. Their flames cast a peaceful light. I could returned to the barn to pull up another load. Meanwhile, my think of no more comfortable place to be on such a night. father climbed into the mow and forked the fresh hay into its far Soon the weather became cold enough so the cows were corners with a three-tined pitchfork. Sweat streamed from his kept in the barn both day and night and were let out every few forehead and soaked through his shirt. It was not uncommon days to exercise. By late November, the temperature often for the temperature in the haymow to rise considerably over one dropped below zero, and the cows were not allowed outside hundred degrees. Five or six hayfork loads later, we returned to even to exercise. 52 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:20 PM Page 53 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY land they stood on made way for shop ping malls, condo developments, and paved parking lots—the relentless march of city into country. Many of these old barns simply stand alone, abandoned, visual mem ories of a changed agriculture. When I see an old barn rotting away, I often wonder if it might be the last barn of its type, a symbol of the past that can never be recovered. Many old barns, on the other hand, are still filled with hay each summer and house dairy cattle as they did when first built. Many are over one hundred years of age yet are as sturdy as when first put up. Why have they managed to survive so well, particu larly during an age when we expect things to wear out within a few years? Barns have stories to tell: of people and their dreams, of animals and their needs, of days long I bcHeve understanding the old ago when the work was difficult and seemingly never ending. Circus World Museum horse barns can help us understand some barn, Baraboo. thing about the people who built them and spent much of their lives working in them. We can learn something When I climbed into the upper part of the barn to throw about the values and satisfactions, the motivations and frus 4^ down hay, I was greeted with long strands of frost attached to trations of these Wisconsin farmers ofan earHer day. And in a the cobwebs. Some ofthe strands were more than six feet long, broader sense, we can learn something about ourselves, for and beautiful in the soft yellow glow of the kerosene lantern. nearly all of us can trace our beginnings back to the soil. IMI Above the hay chutes—the openings from the threshing floor to the stable below—the hay was white with frost all the way to the roof of the barn. The hay chutes were used as ventilators, ABOUT THE AUTHOR allowing the moisture-laden air from the stable to escape to the upper part ofthe barn. When the warm, moist air colHded with Jerry Apps is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the the cold air, the moisture immediately turned to frost. After a author of many books on rural history and few days of below-zero weather, frost hung everywhere in the country life, including Horse-Drawn Days upper parts of the barn, creating a scene of beauty. Pitching and Old Farm: A History. Jerry was born and hay from the mows became a dangerous job, however, for the raised on a small farm in Waushara County, frost made the wooden ladders slippery. Wisconsin, where he spent countless hours During winter days, my father and I spent an hour and a working in the barn, milking and feeding cows, helping to store half milking cows both before breakfast and after supper. Of hay in the haymow, and appreciating the barn's importance to course, the milking time was the same during the other seasons the life of a farm. of the year as well, but in winter, additional time was required to carry feed to the front of the cows and to haul manure out Steve Apps is an award-winning photo- from behind them. Like milking, these were daily tasks. journalist. As a Wisconsin State Journal staff photographer he has covered a wide range of assignments, including the Green Bay Packers and UW-Madison sports. In his off- time Steve loves to travel the state docu In recent years my interest in rural buildings, and particu menting Wisconsin and all its beauty, larly barns, has sharpened. Thousands of them have disap including farmsteads and barns. peared—torn down, bulldozed over, burned—in the name of progress or what is called progress. These old barns and the WINTER 2010 53 WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:49 AM Page 54 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The Wisconsin Historical Society Harry Franke, Mequon Rockne G. Flowers, Madison QuarlesSi Brady LLP Board of Curators Stephen Freese, Dodgeville John J. Frautschi, Madison Reinhart BoernerVan Deuren s.c. Lynne Goldstein, Okemos, Ml Richard H. Holscher, Lake Tomahawk The Ruth and Hartley Barker Director: Gregg Guthrie, LacDu Flambeau W. Pharis Horton, Madison $2,500-$4,999 Ellsworth H. Brown Vivian Guzniczak, Franklin Margaret B. Humleker, Fonddu/.oc 3M Foundation Edna Gwin, Hudson Roy C. LaBudde, Milwaukee Alliant Energy Foundation Officers Charles Haas, La Crosse George H. Miller, Ripon Beyer Construction* President: Ellen Langill Janet Hartzell, Naples, FL Carol T. 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Mary Sather, New Richmond Black Earth pleased to recognize the following The Greater Milwaukee Committee Bob Smith, Huntsville, AL Will Jones, Mod/son companies for their generous Kohler Co.* Edward Virnig, Brookfield John Kerrigan, Oshkosh support.Those marked with an Marshfield Clinic* Gerald Viste, Wausau Steve Kestell, Elkhart Lake asterisk (*) are also participants in Mead & Hunt* Lynne Webster, Cottage Grove Helen Laird, Marshfield the Society's Business Partnership Mueller Communications Anne West, Whitefish Bay Chloris Lowe Jr., New Lisbon Program. Business Partners are Navistar* Robert Zigman, Mequon Judy Nagel, DePere eligible to receive a menu of benefits Potter Lawson, Inc.* Jerry Phillips, Bayfield including membership discounts Stevens Point Journal 4^ Fred A. 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Barland, Eau Claire Name Badge Productions, LLC* 54 wisconsinhistory.org WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:21 PM Page 55 -^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Announcing the Winner ofthe Hesseltine Award ongratulations to Lynda Salisbury and Lonna Schu macher Morouney, winners of the 44th annual C William Best Hesseltine Award for volume 93 of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. Salisbury and Morouney's article, "Encore, Encore! On Stage with the Sidell Sisters and the Leo Kehl School of Dancing," explores the tale of sisters Billie and Piera Sidell, who gained international fame in the 1920s dancing before audiences the world over. Before achiev ing stardom, the sisters received dance training at Leo Kehl's School of Dancing in Madison. Started in 1880 by German immigrant Frederick Kehl, by 1922 the school was run by Frederick's older son Leo. Leo launched the careers of a bevy of dancers including BilHe and Piera Sidell, who studied with him in the early 1920s. The two performed in a variety of venues in Madison and Chicago, and they eventually caught the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld, who invited them to New York to perform in the Broadway play Show Boat. After two-and-a-half seasons, the sisters left to perform in Paris, launching their international careers. They performed in the great cities of Europe for a decade, taking to the stage even when injuries flared or invasions raged around them, until the trials of World War II reached a climax. Afterward, they led separate lives in France, and Piera did not return to the United States after the war. Billie eventually came home to Madison and renewed her connection with Leo Kehl. Lynda Williams Salisbury is a graduate ofthe University of Wisconsin—Madison. She retired from a career in marketing and now lives in Door County pursuing her favorite hobbies, genealogy and writing. She is a member of several lineage soci eties, including thejamestowne Society and the National Soci ety Daughters ofthe American Revolution (DAR). Lynda is a field genealogist for DAR and served as a chapter regent and chapter registrar. She is a past president of the Janesville Noon Rotary Club and co-author of the booklet, "The Army Sur geons of Fort Winnebago." Lonna Schumacher Morouney has a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology and social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She credits her interest in genealogy and history to her grandmother, who kept the stories of the Sidell sisters alive for many years. She lives in rural Bradford Town ship with her husband and three children and volunteers her time to community and civic organizations including the Daughters of the American Revolution and Children of the American Revolution. IM( Madison's Capitol Theater nnarquee advertised a dance and song revue on stage by the Kehl School of Dance, under the direction of Leo Kehl. WINTER 2010 55 WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:49 AM Page 56 -^ Curio 4^ inter in Wisconsin has long offered many opportu nities to trade a chill for a thrill. This dapper gen Wtleman took to frozen Lake Mendota in Madison in the early twentieth century for some ice skating. Conditions rarely allow for such a smooth ride, but Madison's big lake has hosted skaters and ice boats in all weather for many years. We do not know the identity ofthe man who is reflected so clearly on the glassy surface, but he was likely a friend of Flora Neil Davidson, a University of Wisconsin—Madison librarian in whose papers the photo was found. His hat and tie would look out of place in most skating venues today, but no one would have found his formal attire unusual a century ago. WMoHwinIO 11/2/10 9:49 AM Page 57 -^ Bygone Days of Bucolic Wisconsin nmmmmmmT Barns of Wisconsin — $29.95 ©rcatdJtrman '^—' i"**-"' i Old Farm — $29.95 Recipes y^ym, Commemorative IH McCormick tractor — $79.95 Back to the Old Country Ethnic alphabet blocks — $39.95 Ethnic series books and cookbooks — 5.95-$9.95 Ethnic mugs — $7.50 HAVE A HAPPY Wisconsin Adorn Yourself or Someone Else Wisconsin Style Holiday Wisconsin cheese log-inspired purse — $36.00 Madison skyline ornament — $24.00 4^ Eclectic Earth earrings — $11.00-28.00 Frank Lloyd Wright inspired pins — $26.00 Located on the Capitol Square at 30 N Carroll St., Madison, WI 53703 Call 888-999-1669 to order or buy online at shop.wisconsinhistory.org Wisconsin Historical MUSEUM Members ofthe Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! WMoHwinIO 10/26/10 6:21 PM Page 58 M t ^^^ n >! •-"*"• o -t!*- "?--. P^. t CI A THJ BU.CKMORM" RICE LAKK, W«5. ^^ ,- his beautiful Hardanger fiddle was handcrafted by Otto Rindlisbacher. Pictured here in his workshop, Rindlisbacher plays flddle surrounded by a multitude of stringed instru- L_ ments in various stages of completion. He recorded several songs for Helene Stratman- Thomas in August 1941 as part of the government-funded effort to record music from Wisconsin's diverse ethnic and regional population. Over the course of a six-year project, execu tor Stratman-Thomas and recording technician Robert Draves preserved nearly 800 folk music performances in more than twenty-five languages. Read more about the project in Erika Janik's article, "Helene Stratman-Thomas: Wisconsin Songcatcher." WISCONSIN magazine of history WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY